38 Maps That Explain Europe

23/11/2014
38mapsthatexplainEuropeVox
38 maps that explain Europe

by Matthew Yglesias on September 8, 2014
Europe, as both a place and a concept, has changed dramatically

in its centuries of history. Once one of the world's most war-torn
places, it is now known for its remarkable peace. While a place of
relatively great prosperity, it is also experiencing deep economic
turmoil. Europe's transformations are still ongoing, evident both
at the continental level and as narrowly as along certain
transportation lines.
Members of the European Union
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6103453/38mapsthatexplaineurope
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( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4688257/european_union.png) (
http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4688257/european_union.png)
European Union ( http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm)
Members of the European Union

Europe is a contested and contestable concept, but one
good place to start is with the contemporary members of
the European Union a concrete political instantiation of
the idea of Europe. But the EU excludes some countries such
as Norway and Switzerland that are canonically European
and simply resist the political entanglements that
membership would bring. The EU also includes the United
Kingdom, many of whose residents believe "Europe" starts
on the other side of the English Channel. The non-members
in the Balkans are largely thought to be on track for eventual
membership when they reach an appropriate level of
political and economic development.
NATO's growth over time
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( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671350/Map_of_NATO_chronolo
( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671350/Map_of_NATO_chronolo
Arz (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO#mediaviewer/File:Map_of_NATO_chronologica
NATO's growth over time

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization contains several
members who aren't European (the United States, Canada,
and arguably Turkey) and excludes quite a few European
nations. But its expansion over time is key to the
construction of modern Europe. NATO was conceived of as
an anti-communist military alliance. Initially, it was composed
of countries that had fought together against Germany in
World War II, but its anti-Soviet orientation and the heavy
involvement of the United States created a context in which
France and others could endorse the re-armament of West
Germany. When Germany re-unied as a NATO member,
rather than as a neutral, it set the stage for the alliance to
continue expanding eastward and outlive the Cold War. In its
modern form, the alliance is a source of security for western
Europe, a source of customers for US arms manufacturers,
and a source of tension with Russia.
Europe's multinational institutions
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( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4719042/Supranational_European_Bodies.png)
( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4719042/Supranational_European_Bodies.png)
Wdcf (
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supranational_European_Bodies.png)
Europe's multinational institutions

Europe has a lot of international institutions. The European
Union and its associated entities are the best-known and
most-important of them. But the EU itself is complicated,
and not every EU member is part of the EU's currency union
(the Eurozone) or its border security union (the Schengen
Area). EEA and EFTA members largely participate in
Europe's "common market" for goods but don't otherwise
participate in EU political endeavors. The Euro minting
agreement is with several micro-states considered too small
for Eurozone membership but who nonetheless use the
European currency. The Council of Europe, meanwhile, is a
largely symbolic organization that casts the broadest net of
all the European institutions.
Unemployment rate by region
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( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4719432/eurounemployment.png) (
http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4719432/eurounemployment.png)
Vox map created with Eurostat
Unemployment rate by region

Politically, Europe is a continent of nation-states. But thanks
to deep integration, the European economy is really one of
regions where national averages can obscure more than they
reveal. This map of unemployment rates coded by subnational region shows how Europe really works. The strong
German economy is really a case of a red-hot south Germany
region that extends into adjacent areas of Austria,
Switzerland, and the Czech Republic as much as it does into
northwestern Germany. Meanwhile, the economy of the
former East Germany looks a lot like the economy of Poland.
Southern Italy is like Spain, Portugal, or Greece, but Northern
Italy is more like France so on average Italy shows up as an
in-between case. The Francophone parts of Belgium have
France-like economic conditions, while the Dutch-speaking
parts in the north have conditions closer to those in the
Netherlands. Transnational economic areas happen all over
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the world, of course, but the deep and purposeful economic

ties European nations have forged with one another since
the end of World War II make them an especially prominent
aspect of the European experience.
History
5
The Roman Empire
( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4822044/RomanEmpire_117.svg.png)
( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4822044/RomanEmpire_117.svg.png)
Andrei Nacu (
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RomanEmpire_117.svg)
The Roman Empire

Many of Europe's languages and institutions date back more
or less linearally to the Roman Empire. This map (see 39
more Rome maps here (
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http://www.vox.com/2014/8/19/5942585/40-maps-that-explainthe-roman-empire)) shows the empire at its greatest extent
under Trajan in 117 A.D. Rome ruled substantial portions of

North Africa and the Levant that today would be considered
non-European, while excluding most of Germany, the Nordic
countries, and most of central and eastern Europe. But the
Christian religion formed in the later Roman years is a
cornerstone of European culture, and the legacy of Rome
lives on even outside the territory the empire formerly ruled.
Titles such as Czar (Russian) and Kaiser (German) derive
from Caesar, classical columns are a widely understood
symbol of authority, and knowledge of Latin was for
centuries considered the key mark of an educated person
throughout the continent.
Europe in the fifth century
( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671426/RomanEmpire_477ad.0.jpg) ( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671426/RomanEmpire_477ad.0.jpg)
Thomas Lessman (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire#mediaviewer/File:RomanEmpire_477ad.jpg)
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Europe in the fifth century

By the late fth century, the Roman Empire had collapsed in
the west and Europe was a patchwork of small kingdoms,
with the western Empire reduced to a handful of rump
territories. Most of these kingdoms bore little relationship to
modern day states, but the Ostrogothic kingdom does
largely map onto present-day Italy, and the origins of
modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Finland are discernable up
north. On the other hand, the distinction between the
present-day cultural zones of Europe and North Africa was
not yet drawn at this time, as witnessed by a Vandal kingdom
that encompassed territories on both sides of the divide.
Similarly, Greece at this time was on the eastern side of an
east/west political divide and united with Turkey the
opposite of the present-day arrangement.
The partition of Charlesmagne's empire

( http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4719354/1280px-
Partage_de_l_Empire_carolingien_au_Trait__de_Verdun_en_843.JPG)
( http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4719354/1280px-
Partage_de_l_Empire_carolingien_au_Trait__de_Verdun_en_843.JPG)
Atlas Gnral Vidal-Lablache (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun#mediaviewer/File:Partage_de_l%27Empire_caroling
The partition of Charlesmagne's empire

Charles the Great, also known as Charlemagne, eventually
united much of western Europe into a single kingdom. Upon
his death in 814 A.D., his empire was formally divided into
three pieces by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The
westernmost entity to emerge from the partition is clearly
the antecedent of the modern-day state of France. The
political history of Germany is more complicated, but,
roughly speaking, it corresponds to the eastern kingdom.
The territory in between, meanwhile, has been the site of
much armed conict in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th
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centuries as France battled with Germanic powers ruled

from Vienna and Berlin for control over the Low Countries,
Alsace, and Lorraine.
The Holy Roman Empire

( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671434/HRR.0.gif)
( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671434/HRR.0.gif)
Jaspe (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire#mediaviewer/File:HRR.gif)
The Holy Roman Empire

As the joke goes, the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy,
Roman, nor an empire. It was, instead, the most prominent
and important of a set of Medieval political institutions that
did not develop the institutions of a modern state. The
empire's boundaries waxed and waned over time, but it was
largely moribund by the 18th century as dierent monarchs
whether inside the empire or outside sought to build
their own powerful centralized kingdoms. When Napoleon's
armies marched across Europe, they abolished the Holy
Roman Empire, and when he was defeated the victorious
powers made no eort to put Humpty Dumpty back
together again. Instead, the Habsburg Dynasty, which had
long held the title of Holy Roman Emperor, simply began
characterizing their holdings in Austria and Central Europe
as an empire.
The empire of Charles V

( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672218/EmpireRoman-Emperor-Charles-V.0.jpg) ( http://cdn0.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672218/EmpireRoman-Emperor-Charles-V.0.jpg)
Luccio Silla and Paul2 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#mediaviewer/File:EmpireRoman-Emperor-Charles-V.jpg)
The empire of Charles V

He's a bit of an obscure gure these days, but Charles V in
the early 16th century ruled one of the mightiest empires
the world had ever known. This map depicts his holdings in
his function as King of Castille (purple), King of Aragon (red),
Duke of Burgundy (orange), as well as holder of Austria's
hereditory territories (dark yellow), plus the then-extent of
the Holy Roman Empire, throughout which he held some
authority. What it doesn't show is the vast expansion of the
Spanish colonial empire at this time through the conquest of
the Aztec and Incan empires in the New World.
10
Napoleon's European Union

( http://cdn2.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671444/French_Empire__1812_.
( http://cdn2.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671444/French_Empire__1812_.
Alphathon (
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_French_Empire_1812.svg)
Napoleon's European Union

This map shows Napoleon's French Empire (deep blue) at its
height in 1812, along with various satellite regimes that
were typically headed by a member of the emperor's family
or one of his generals. The ruling regimes of Prussia and
Austria were not deposed, but they were momentarily
brought into a French-dominated continental economic
order. But Britain and Russia were never reconciled to
Napoleon's ambitions, and rebellion was fairly constant in
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Spain where the long border with British-aligned Portugal

created many opportunities for troublemaking. France and
its allies went to war with Russia to try to denitively
establish the legitimacy of the new regime, but they were
defeated decisively. Though Napoleon's continental regime
was short-lived, it was also quite inuential, spreading the
metric system and modern administrative methods
throughout Europe.
11
The end of World War One

( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4620775/postwar_europe.png) (
http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/assets/4620775/postwar_europe.png)
Fluteute ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Europe_1923-en.svg)
The end of World War One

Napoleon's defeat led to a century-long period without
major continent-wide wars. Then came the Great War (
http://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps), an unexpectedly
long and terrible conict that shattered many of the

dynasties that participated in it. This map highlights how
Europe's boundaries shifted as a result of the war (see 39
more World War I maps here ( http://www.vox.com/a/world-wari-maps)). The borders established at the war's end in late
1918 are by no means identical to today's boundaries, but by

this time the basic set of nations is becoming quite familiar,
as is the rough principle that European states should
conform to linguistically dened nations. The world war was
followed by a second, even more terrible conict that led to
a further shrinkage of Germany and the expansion of the
USSR.
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12
The Iron Curtain

( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4688361/Iron_Curtain_map.svg.png)
( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4688361/Iron_Curtain_map.svg.png)
Smhur (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain#mediaviewer/File:Iron_Curtain_map.svg)
The Iron Curtain

From 1948 through 1989, Europe was divided into two
hostile, armed camps one aligned with the United States
of America and one aligned with the Soviet Union, with a
handful of neutrals in between. The line separating the
Soviet bloc from the rest was famously referred to by
Winston Churchill as an "iron curtain" dividing Europe. But
while on one level the Cold War divided the continent, in
other respects it made it more unied than ever before. The
threat of communism inspired the US-aligned nations to
resolve longstanding conicts and forge institutional ties.
These relationships and institutions outlived the USSR and
laid the foundation for modern Europe.
People
13
Europe's many languages

( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/assets/4784300/Rectied_Languages_of_Europe_map.png)
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/assets/4784300/Rectied_Languages_of_Europe_map.png)
Spiridon Manoliu (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Europe#mediaviewer/File:Rectied_Languages_of_Euro
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Europe's many languages

Political instability in other regions is often attributed to
"arbitrary colonial boundaries" that fail to carve nationalities
at the joints. But even in the historic homeland of linguistic
nationalism, political boundaries rarely accord perfectly with
social facts on the ground. German is the majority language
in three countries. Spain contains four dierent language
communities. There's an Italian-speaking part of Switzerland
and a German-speaking part of Italy. Substantial
Francophone populations are living just outside France's
borders. And on the British Isles there are two (and maybe
soon three) independent states sharing a common majority
tongue.
14
Germany after reunification

( http://cdn0.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676202/GermanyPopulationChan
( http://cdn0.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676202/GermanyPopulationChan
Benjamin Hennig ( http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/?p=2719)
Germany after reunification

Germany has been unied for a quarter century now, but any
statistical breakdown will reveal the enduring relevance of
the old East/West divide in terms of prosperity, health, and
almost anything else you care to name. The continued
relevance of that boundary is also visible on this map of
German population shifts (click through to see Benjamin
Hennig's full, gorgeous rendering). Almost all of the former
East German areas are losing people. The exceptions are
Berlin and the Berlin suburbs in the state of Brandenburg.
15
A Europe of equals
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( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671524/14489964857_2bd28e9
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671524/14489964857_2bd28e9
Alasdair Gunn (
https://farm6.staticickr.com/5489/14489964857_2bd28e9483_o.png)
A Europe of equals
This fantasy map by Alasdair Gunn redivides the area
contained in the European Union into states that would have
roughly equal populations. For the sake of further fun, he's
tried to draw the boundaries to correspond to some real
historical divisions in a way that gives us a look at some
states that might have been. The southern and western
shores of Sweden, for example, really were Danish
possessions for a considerable period of time. Mainly,
though, the map works as a clever illustration of population
densities. Lowland, Kln, and Rhineland are all relatively tiny
in terms of area but not population, underscoring the very
thick settlement pattern in this portion of the continent. As
one goes further east, things thin out considerably, and the
make-believe countries get larger.
16
English language ability

( http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/assets/4784292/englisheu.jpg) ( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/assets/4784292/english-eu.jpg)
Jakub Marian ( http://jakubmarian.com/map-of-the-percentage-of-peoplespeaking-english-in-the-eu-by-country/)
English language ability

German is the most widely spoken native language in
Europe, but English is the main language of continental
aairs. It's spoken by the multinational bureaucracy in
Brussels, and it's the language multinational business teams
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use to communicate internally. But competence in English is

neither universal nor uniform across Europe. Across Europe's
southern tier, in particular, major decisions are being made in
a language that is only spoken by a relatively narrow
educated elite.
17
Europe by night
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/663570/dnb_land_ocean_ice.201
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/663570/dnb_land_ocean_ice.201
NASA Earth Observatory (
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/NightLights/page3.php)
Europe by night
This map of the night sky from NASA is another way of
getting at where Europeans actually live. The Russian
population is fantastically concentrated in just a few cities,
most prominently Moscow and St. Petersburg, which shine
brightly amidst a dark countryside. But Europe's biggest
clusters of people are in England, around the Low Countries
of Belgium and the Netherlands, and in the very prosperous
northern region of Italy. A particularly noteworthy fact is
how consistently lit-up the Mediterranean coast is,
highlighting how central that sea has been for thousands of
years of European settlement.
Economy
18
The richest person in every European country
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( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674100/152vuzj.01.0.png) ( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674100/152vuzj.01.0.png)
Frivilligt (
http://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2edemz/richest_people_of_europe_xpost_rmapporn/
The richest person in every European country

This fun map shows Reddit user Frivilligt's best estimate of
the richest person in every European country. There is no
ocial government database of ultra-high-net-wealth
individuals, so some media sources disagree about a few of
the names. But the basic picture is clear enough. Unlike in a
map of the richest resident of every American state, you
don't see any high-tech titans or fossil fuel barons here. It's
either the leaders of important consumer brands or else
individuals whose wealth is drawn from the worlds of real
estate and nance. If you're wondering how Nutella could be
so lucrative, the answer is that the Nutella you see on store
shelves is only the most delicious confection made by a
company that owns a portfolio of snack brands.
19
Europe scaled by GDP

( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676126/Screen_Shot_201408-29_at_2.05.53_PM.0.png) ( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676126/Screen_Shot_201408-29_at_2.05.53_PM.0.png)
Benjamin Hennig ( http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/?p=4041)
Europe scaled by GDP

This cartogram from Benjamin Hennig distorts the shape of
each European country to scale it to the size of its overall
economic output. The rich, densely populated Netherlands
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gets a lot bigger though this method while sparsely

populated Sweden and Ireland shrink. The picture should
make it clear that Germany's dominance of the continent
or even of the Eurozone, which excludes the United Kingdom
is often exaggerated. The Germans certainly have the
largest economy in Europe but it's far from a hegemonic
position. France, Italy, and Spain are all quite large as well,
and even the "small" European economies add up.
20
What does Europe export?

( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674346/exports.0.png)
( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674346/exports.0.png)
Simran Khosla ( http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/worldcommodities-map_536bebb20436a.png)
What does Europe export?

This detailed zoom into a larger map by Simran Khosla
shows each country's biggest export sector. Most European
countries are global purveyors of sophisticated machinery
and capital equipment of one sort or another, but there are
exceptions. Norway combines a Nordic social democracy
with a healthy supply of oil, making it the continent's richest
country by GDP per capita. Conversely, many of Europe's
poorer countries like Greece, Romania, or Portugal lack
sophisticated manufacturing sectors and export less
valuable commodities.
21
The unemployment divide

( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676108/fredgraph.0.png)
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( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/676108/fredgraph.0.png)
St Louis Federal Reserve ( http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?
g=IS2)
The unemployment divide

Okay, this isn't a a map at all. But it's really important to
understanding Europe. Before the nancial crisis, the US
unemployment rate was lower than the Eurozone's,
reecting structural dierences between the economies.
Then the recession, focused initially in the American housing
sector, hit the US much harder than the Eurozone and
pushed the unemployment rates up to approximately the
same level. But while the United States has made substantial
progress in recovering from that shock, tight money from
the European Central Bank and a chaotic nancial situation
have left the European job market dramatically worse o
than it was at the peak of the initial recession.
22
Europe's shale gas potential

( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674866/20130202_WBM955.0.p
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674866/20130202_WBM955.0.p
The Economist ( http://www.economist.com/news/business/21571171extracting-europes-shale-gas-and-oil-will-be-slow-and-dicult-businessfrack-future)
Europe's shale gas potential

Natural gas extracted from shale through hydraulic
fracturing has been an enormous growth industry in the
United States over the past ve years, transforming a
number of communities and sharply curtailing domestic use
of coal. At the same time, many worry about the
environmental hazards of the fracking itself, as well as about
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the potential for enthusiasm about new forms of fossil fuel

extraction to kill momentum for renewable energy sources.
This map from The Economist highlights that Europe may
well have the potential to get in on the gas party. But not
only does it take time and money to explore whether this
potential can be brought to life, would-be frackers also need
to overcome considerable regulatory hurdles. European
politics makes it much easier for environmentalists and other
fracking opponents to get their way, thus far limiting
exploration to a great extent.
23
Tesla's supercharger network

( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674940/Screen_Shot_201408-28_at_9.37.22_AM.0.png) ( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674940/Screen_Shot_201408-28_at_9.37.22_AM.0.png)
Tesla Motors ( http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger)
Tesla's supercharger network

This map of Tesla Motors' European supercharger network is
handy if you happen to be planning a road trip in an
extremely expensive luxury sedan. But it's also a window into
Europe's socioeconomic geography. This product appeals to
a particular kind of upscale environmentalist, so it's no
surprise that Tesla's US network started in California then
came to the northeast and has been built from the coasts
inward. The European equivalent is rather dierent, starting
from the middle along an axis running roughly from Turin
to Oslo and working out to less-prosperous regions on the
eastern and western peripheries.
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Life
24
Life expectancy
( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674850/Screen_Shot_201408-28_at_9.08.31_AM.0.png) ( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674850/Screen_Shot_201408-28_at_9.08.31_AM.0.png)
Reilly616 and Eurostat (
http://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/2ek/european_life_expectancy_at_birth_by_nuts_
Life expectancy
Mapping life expectancy across Europe's regions
demonstrates an interesting lack of correlation with overall
economic health. The former communist areas are uniformly
worse than those on the western side of the Iron Curtain,
but within western Europe it's far from clear that the richer
areas are doing better on this score. Spain has one of
Europe's weakest economies, but its life expectency is
among Europe's highest. Greek life expectency looks similar
to Germany's. Some of the worst life expectancies are
concentrated in the prosperous United Kingdom. This is the
sort of broad observation that's given rise to a thousand
articles touting the virtues of the Mediterranean diet and
lifestyle versus the heavy investment in meat, potatoes, and
beer that's more characteristic of northern Europe or the
United States.
25
Alcohol taxation
( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674968/excise_map.0.jpg)
( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674968/excise_map.0.jpg)
Spirits Europe ( http://spirits.eu/page.php?id=37&parent_id=8)
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Alcohol taxation
Alcohol taxation prices vary widely across Europe, with the
general rule that the Nordic states and the UK levy the
highest rates. This map was produced by Europe's distilled
spirits lobby, however, to illustrate the point that European
nations generally tax alcohol at a higher rate when it comes
in the form of whiskey or vodka than beer or wine. Wine in
particular gets a very generous tax treatment, with a huge
number of European states apparently viewing it as not
having any kind of health hazard worth discouraging at all.
26
Share of population over 65

( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674976/Europe_population_over
( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674976/Europe_population_over
Underlying lk (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageing_of_Europe#mediaviewer/File:Europe_population_over_65.png)
Share of population over 65

This map based on 2010 data shows the share of the
population in each country that is over the age of 65.
Demographic aging is occuring in almost all countries around
the world, but it is particularly extreme in a handful of
European countries and it is an economic challenge for
countries that have built the most comprehensive welfare
states. Not only is a larger elder population a burden in terms
of pension programs (Social Security and equivalent) but
older people tend to have greater health care needs. The
fact that Europe has a continentally integrated labor market
but not an integrated welfare state may exacerbate these
issues. To the extent that Italy needs to levy high taxes on its
working-age population to take care of older Italians, that
merely makes it more attractive for young Italians to move to
Copenhagen or Amsterdam leaving Italy with an even
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higher share of senior citizens than it had before.
27
The biggest football fans

( http://cdn2.voxcdn.com/assets/4645909/laknebg__2_.png) (
http://cdn2.voxcdn.com/assets/4645909/laknebg__2_.png)
tuttle_not_buttle (
http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1tqkds/percentage_of_the_population_attending_dom
The biggest football fans

Football (or soccer) is popular across the European
continent, but attendance at games varies considerably
between countries. As this map of attendance rates shows,
the absolute most football-mad people on the continent are
the Scots, followed pretty closely by the English and the
Dutch. The enormous popularity of Norway's domestic
league is interesting because it's hardly one of the world's
best or most prominent leagues. Soccer is relatively
unpopular in central and eastern Europe, where you see
more hockey fans. It is also interesting that soccer is less
popular in France than in any of the western European
countries that surround it. Not coincidentally, the French
national league is also considered weaker than its
competitors in Germany, Italy, and Spain. Less clear is
whether this is because French people don't like soccer quite
as much, or whether the causation runs in the opposite
direction.
28
Islam in Europe
( http://cdn2.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675078/Muslim_population_and_
( http://cdn2.voxhttp://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6103453/38mapsthatexplaineurope
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675078/Muslim_population_and_
Muslim World ( http://islamicpopulation.blogspot.com/2010/09/muslims-ineurope-country-wise.html)
Islam in Europe
There is nothing new about Muslims living in Europe, but the
present-day locus of Islam in western Europe derives much
more from recent immigration trends than from the inux of
Muslims into Spain and the Balkans centuries ago. Albania,
Bosnia, and Kosovo in the far southeast are majority Muslim
as part of that historic presence, but further west the largest
Muslim population is in France. This is largely a consequence
of migration into France from the country's former colonies
in northern and western Africa. In Germany, by contrast,
Muslims are largely the descendents of Turkish guest
workers who moved there during the economic boom of the
1960s, while Swedish immigration is inuenced more heavily
by the granting of refugee status to people facing problems
in their homeland. The Netherlands is home to many
immigrants from Indonesia, a former colonial possession of
the Dutch.
29
The secular continent

( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675930/1024pxEurope_belief_in_god.svg.0.png) ( http://cdn1.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675930/1024pxEurope_belief_in_god.svg.0.png)
Alphathon based on Eurobarometer data (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#mediaviewer/File:Europe_belief_in_god.svg
The secular continent

Europe is the least-religious major region on earth, as
highlighted by this Eurobarmeter poll asking how many
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people "believe there is a god." In the United States, polls of

this question generally show 75 to 80 percent of Americans to
be theists ( http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/pollamericans-belief-god-strong-declining). That's similar to the
numbers in Italy or Poland, but far above what you see in

France, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the Nordic
countries. The Czechs and the Estonians, however, take the
prize for irreligion with fewer than one fth of the
population professing a belief in god.
Foreign relations
30
Europe's intimate ties to Russia

( http://cdn2.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/666524/Major_russian_gas_pipe
( http://cdn2.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/666524/Major_russian_gas_pipe
Europe's intimate ties to Russia

Russia and the European Union are locked into an intimate
economic relationship by the web of gas pipelines depicted
in this map by Samuel Bailey. On the one hand, without the
gas that ows through these pipelines many European
countries including Germany and Italy would be bereft
of energy resources. And yet as critical as Russian fuel
imports are to Europe's energy mix, those very same exports
are in a way even more critical to the Russian economy, as
they oer a huge share of the country's foreign currency
earnings. As events in Ukraine and elsewhere drive tensions
between Moscow and Brussels, both sides remain locked
into this energy trade by the basic geographical reality that
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gas can only ow where the pipelines go.
31
The EU's growing diplomatic presence

( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672232/EU_diplomatic_missions
( http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672232/EU_diplomatic_missions
Alinor (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_European_Union#mediaviewer/File:EU_diplo
The EU's growing diplomatic presence

It's a well-worn clich that the European Union, despite its
grand aspirations, tends not to speak with a united or
powerful voice in world aairs. But this is changing. The
Union now possesses an External Action Service a kind of
diplomatic corps and an array of EU foreign missions
around the world. The places currently served by full-service
EU missions (denoted in dark green) are an interesting
blend. You have many countries in sub-Saharan Africa where
many individual EU members would likely not spend the
money on an embassy of their own. But you also have key
rising powers in Asia and non-EU countries that border the
EU. Meanwhile, light green indicates countries where there is
an accredited European Commission mission as well as
diplomatic missions from individual European nations.
Together, these cover virtually every country on earth. It's a
long way from a "European foreign policy" but also
something you wouldn't come close to seeing from any
other trade bloc a perfect illustration of the EU's hybrid
nature.
32
EU military interventions abroad

( http://cdn1.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672240/Map_of_EU_intervention
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672240/Map_of_EU_intervention
Nightstallion (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Security_and_Defence_Policy_missions_of_the_European_Un
EU military interventions abroad

European Union member states retain the right to conduct
military operations unilaterally, but in practice only France
and the UK tend to actually do this. Other nations are much
more likely to send troops abroad under the aegis of a larger
NATO or, increasingly, EU mission. This map highlights
all the countries that have experienced an ocial EU military
intervention over the past 15 years. It includes a lot of
peacekeeping operations in Africa, participation in postwar
reconstruction eorts in Iraq and Afghanistan, monitoring
the newfound independence of East Timor, and a variety of
operations aimed at stabilizing the European periphery.
33
Europe's colonial legacy

( http://cdn2.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674328/Screen_Shot_201406-23_at_5.07.38_PM2.0.png) ( http://cdn2.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/674328/Screen_Shot_201406-23_at_5.07.38_PM2.0.png)
Max Fisher ( http://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5835320/map-in-the-wholeworld-only-these-ve-countries-escaped-european)
Europe's colonial legacy

Fairly remarkably, almost every country on the planet was
formally or informally incorporated into a European colonial
empire at one point or another. Some of these territories
like the United States or Australia were settled by
European immigration subsequent to colonization. Others
were turned into "protectorates" or other arrangements in
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which some native potentate retained formal control, but

foreign aairs and important aspects of economic policy
were turned over to the colonizing power. In most places, a
colonial government was simply installed.
Transportation
34
Commuter rail across three nations

( http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4784340/Basel__Regio-S-Bahn_Basel_-_Netzplan.jpg) (
http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4784340/Basel__Regio-S-Bahn_Basel_-_Netzplan.jpg)
Maximiliar Drrbecker ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basel__Regio-S-Bahn_Basel_-_Netzplan.jpg)
Commuter rail across three nations

A symbol of present-day Europe's high level of peace and
cooperation, as well as its commitment to excellent mass
transit service, the commuter rail network for the city of
Basel in Switzerland extends into both France and Germany.
Responsibility for the service is split between the Swiss
national rail company, France's SNCF, and Germany's
Deutsche Bahn. International urban agglomerations are fairly
common globally (there are several on the US-Mexico
border), but cross-border transportation services are
uniquely practical in Europe because the Schengen
Agreement allows for transit across most of the continent's
internal boundaries without passport checks or customs.
35
Rhein-Ruhr mass transit
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( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/664340/StadtbahnRR.0.png)
( http://cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/664340/StadtbahnRR.0.png)
Sebastian Sothen ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkehrsverbund_RheinRuhr)
Rhein-Ruhr mass transit

Germany is Europe's largest economic power and Berlin is
Germany's largest city. But the real hub of the Germany
economy is a lesser-known but more interesting urban
phenomenon the polycentric metropolitan area known as
Rhine-Ruhr, stretching from Dusseldorf and Cologne in the
north to Bonn in the south. None of the constituent cities of
Rhine-Ruhr are especially large, but together they make a
metropolitan area that's 11 million strong and hosts 26 of
Germany's 50 largest companies. Knitting it all together and
making it all work is the complicated but ecient
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, the region's mass transit
system. It's composed of 29 regional rail lines, 11 S-Bahn
lines, 19 light rail lines, 45 streetcars, and over 900 bus
routes.
36
High-speed rail
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671606/High_Speed_Railroad_M
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/671606/High_Speed_Railroad_M
FlyAkwa ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highspeed_rail_in_Europe#mediaviewer/File:High_Speed_Railroad_Map_of_Europe_2013.svg)
High-speed rail
The Acela Express between Washington, DC and Boston, an
unusually fast train in American trains, is only about as fast
as the bright yellow lines on this map of Europe's passenger
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rail network. The orange, red, and purple lines are faster than
anything we have in the USA. You can see that the very best
train routes are dominated by France and Spain, who've
invested mightily in passenger rail. But the links between
London, Lille, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Lige are the
most noteworthy in terms of the mix of speed, distance, and
number of cities served. In a typically European fashion,
these crucial links cross several national boundaries. The
formerly communist countries, meanwhile, are essentially
American in their neglect of high-speed rail.
37
Europe's busiest airports

( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672222/EuropeCent.0.png)
( http://cdn3.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/672222/EuropeCent.0.png)
PemFR (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Europe#mediaviewer/File:EuropeCent.PNG)
Europe's busiest airports

This is every European airport that moves more than
100,000 annual passengers, with the size of the dot scaled
to the volume of air trac. The map was made using data
from 2009, which was a terrible year in general for aviation
thanks to the great recession, so total volumes are likely
bigger today. By and large the biggest cities see the most air
travel, though one important exception is that Berlin in
northeastern Germany is a relative minnow in terms of air
trac Germany's biggest airport by far is in the smaller
western city of Frankfurt. That's in large part a legacy of the
city's anomalous Cold War politics, and is supposed to be
xed after the much-delayed new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (
http://online.wsj.com/articles/berlin-mayor-resigns-aftercriticism-over-delays-to-new-airport-opening-1409056774) is
nally completed.
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38
Grand Paris Express

( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675022/Grand_paris_express.svg
( http://cdn1.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/le/675022/Grand_paris_express.svg
Hektor (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Paris_Express#mediaviewer/File:Grand_paris_express.svg)
Grand Paris Express

This map shows France's plan to make the best mass transit
system on the continent (if not the world) even better,
through the Grand Paris Express initiative. The plan calls for
the creation of four new Metro lines one of them a
suburban loop that will make all trips between peripheral
destinations much faster as well as the extension of the
existing Metro lines 11 and 14, transforming them into major
axes throughout the Paris area. The city's municipal
boundaries are highlighted in yellow in the center here. As
you can see, the improvements are almost all to
transportation outside the city so this won't change things
much for tourists who probably don't have much need even
for the new links to Versailles or Charles de Gaulle Airport.
But for actual French people, this will greatly expand the set
of destinations where one can live and still enjoy a
convenient commute to the central city or to the enormous
secondary business district of La Dfense right outside the
city.
Learn more
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40 maps that explain World War One (

http://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps)
An awesome map of the last time each European
country was occupied (
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/5758662/occupationeurope-map-ukraine)
40 maps that explain the Roman Empire (
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/19/5942585/40-mapsthat-explain-the-roman-empire)
Credits
Developer Yuri Victor ( http://twitter.com/yurivictor)
31/31

38 Maps That Explain Europe - Vox

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38 Maps That Explain Europe - Vox

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23/11/2014

Europe, as both a place and a concept, has changed dramatically

Members of the European Union

Members of the European Union

NATO's growth over time

NATO's growth over time

Europe's multinational institutions

Europe's multinational institutions

Unemployment rate by region

Unemployment rate by region

the world, of course, but the deep and purposeful economic

The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/19/5942585/40-maps-that-explainthe-roman-empire)) shows the empire at its greatest extent

under Trajan in 117 A.D. Rome ruled substantial portions of

Europe in the fifth century

Europe in the fifth century

The partition of Charlesmagne's empire

The partition of Charlesmagne's empire

centuries as France battled with Germanic powers ruled

The Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire

The empire of Charles V

The empire of Charles V

Napoleon's European Union

Napoleon's European Union

Spain where the long border with British-aligned Portugal

The end of World War One

The end of World War One

long and terrible conict that shattered many of the

1918 are by no means identical to today's boundaries, but by

The Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain

Europe's many languages

Europe's many languages

Germany after reunification

Germany after reunification

English language ability

English language ability

use to communicate internally. But competence in English is

The richest person in every European country

The richest person in every European country

Europe scaled by GDP

Europe scaled by GDP

gets a lot bigger though this method while sparsely

What does Europe export?

What does Europe export?

The unemployment divide

The unemployment divide

Europe's shale gas potential

Europe's shale gas potential

the potential for enthusiasm about new forms of fossil fuel

Tesla's supercharger network

Tesla's supercharger network

Share of population over 65

Share of population over 65

higher share of senior citizens than it had before.

The biggest football fans

The biggest football fans

The secular continent

The secular continent

people "believe there is a god." In the United States, polls of

numbers in Italy or Poland, but far above what you see in