Is life expectancy in my region higher than in other regions in the European Union (EU)? Is my region richer than others? Does it have fewer road accidents? Does it have many households with broadband internet connection? The answers to these questions and many more are found in the 2016 edition of the regional yearbook, published each year by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The regional yearbook provides an overview of the wide range of regional statistics available for the 276 NUTS level 2 regions and, for some indicators, the 1 342 NUTS level 3 regions of the 28 Member States of the EU as well as, when available, the regions in EFTA and candidate countries.
The Eurostat regional yearbook 2016 contains chapters on regional policies and Europe 2020, population, health, education, labour market, gross domestic product, structural business statistics, research and innovation, information society, tourism, transport and agriculture. It also includes two special focus chapters: commuting patterns between regions and regional population projections. In addition to the regional yearbook, Eurostat offers applications for visualising and analysing sub-national data: the two interactive website applications Regional Statistics Illustrated and Statistical Atlas, as well as the mobile device application My Region.
This News Release presents data on regional population density as well as data from the regional population projections chapter of the Eurostat regional yearbook 2016.
Population density highest in Inner London
In 2014 the most densely populated NUTS 2 regions in the EU were Inner London – East (10 780 inhabitants per km2 ) and Inner London – West (10 283) in the United Kingdom, followed by Brussels in Belgium (7 393), Melilla in Spain (6 479) and Vienna in Austria (4 507).
Population of five EU regions projected to double or almost double by 2050…
In a small majority of the NUTS 2 regions for which data are available, the population is projected to increase between 2015 and 2050. The population is projected to more than double in the Spanish region Melilla (+127%) and almost double in four other regions: the French overseas department of Guiana (+95%), Luxembourg (+87%), Brussels in Belgium (+83%) and Ceuta in Spain (+82%). Increases of more than 60% are also projected for Inner London – East in the United Kingdom (+62%) and Stockholm in Sweden (+61%).