Europe Atlas Exercise #2.

We haven’t really looked at how European countries rank in terms of population.  So, please turn to the World Political Information beginning on p. 289 and list the ten largest European Union countries and their populations in order of descending population.

                        Country                                                                   Population          

1. _Germany_______                                                  _82 million______         

2. _France­_________                                                  _62 million______         

3. _United Kingdom_                                                  _61 million______         

4. _Italy___________                                                 _58 million______         

5. _Spain__________                                                  _40 million______         

6. _Poland_________                                                  _38 million______         

7. _The Netherlands_                                                  _16 million______         

8. _Greece_________                                                 _10.7 million______   

9. _Portugal________                                                 _10.6 million______   

10. Belgium_______                                                    _10.4 million ____         

One aspect of Europe’s population is its recent increase in ethnic diversity.  This increase emerged after WWII.  Some countries in the European Union have established reputations as welcoming hosts of refugees.  Look at the map and bar graphs on p. 81 to see the geographic distribution of refugees in Europe.

1. Which three EU countries host the largest refugee populations? Germany, United Kingdom, France
2. Compare the size of these three countries’ refugee populations with that of the US.

The US has a population of ~305 million.  We have a refugee population of 2.9 million, which is 0.95% of our population.

Germany has a population of ~82 million and a refugee population of 6 million, which is 7.3% of their population.

The UK has a population of ~61 million and a refugee population of 3.1 million, which is 5.08% of their population.

In summary, refugees make up a significantly higher proportion of Germany and the UK’s population than the US’s population.