Europe population

Europe is the first major region to move past its demographic peak, which it reached around 2020, and it now faces a long, slow contraction. Low fertility sustained across the continent for decades means deaths outnumber births in most countries, and only immigration keeps the decline gentle rather than steep. Europe's share of world population, already down to about one in eleven, is projected to fall to roughly one in sixteen by 2100 as the centre of demographic gravity shifts south and east.

Europe is home to about 744 million people in 2026, roughly 9% of the world total, spread across 50 countries and territories. Its most populous are Russia, Germany, United Kingdom.

The region has already passed its peak. Population topped out near 750 million around 2020 and is projected to fall to about 593 million by 2100, as low fertility and aging outweigh migration. Its share of the world is set to slip from 9% today to about 6% by 2100.

These are the UN's medium-variant figures, the central scenario rather than a forecast. The further out they run the wider the plausible range, but the broad shape of Europe's century is consistent across the main variants.