The preceding table shows the area of the countries of Europe, Population. with their estimated or enumerated populations in thousands (000 omitted) at different dates.
A noteworthy feature of the distribution of population in Europe, especially in western, southern and central Europe, in modern times, is the high degree of aggregation in towns, which is exhibited in the following table[74] for the different countries or regions of the continent:—
| Percentage in Towns. | All Towns over 20,000. | ||
| Over 100,000. | From 20,000 to 100,000. | ||
| England and Wales | 34.8 | 23.5 | 58.3 |
| Scotland | 29.7 | 9.9 | 39.7 |
| Ireland | 14.2 | 5.3 | 19.5 |
| Norway | 10.8 | 6.8 | 17.6 |
| Sweden | 8.5 | 2.6 | 11.2 |
| Denmark | 19.4 | 6.6 | 26.0 |
| German Empire | 17.0 | 11.2 | 28.2 |
| Netherlands | 22.3 | 15.0 | 37.3 |
| Belgium | 18.6 | 12.0 | 30.6 |
| France | 13.7 | 10.3 | 24.0 |
| Spain and Portugal | 10.5 | 5.7 | 16.2 |
| Bosnia, Servia and Bulgaria | .. | 4.2 | 4.2 |
| Rumania | 4.6 | 7.2 | 11.8 |
| Hungary | 3.7 | 9.1 | 12.8 |
| Galicia and Bukovina | 2.0 | 4.8 | 6.8 |
| Cis-Leithan provinces of Austria | |||
| (exclusive of the two latter) | 12.4 | 5.9 | 18.3 |
| Poland | 10.6 | 4.2 | 14.8 |
| Baltic Provinces, Russia | 11.4 | 8.3 | 19.7 |
| Moscow region[75] | 9.6 | 5.4 | 15.0 |
| Black earth governments, Great Russia[76] | 0.7 | 4.9 | 5.6 |
| Governments of middle and lower Volga[77] | 3.3 | 4.0 | 7.3 |
| South Russia[78] | 7.0 | 8.5 | 15.5 |
| Finland | 3.8 | 4.3 | 8.1 |
The following table contains a list of the towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants, not in every case according to the most recent census, but, in order to make the populations fairly comparable with one another, according to the nearest census or available estimate to 1900. Population in thousands (000 omitted):—
| *London (Greater, 1901) | 6581 | Charlottenburg (1900) | 189 |
| London (Registration, 1901) | 4536 | Königsberg (1900) | 188 |
| *Paris (w. subs.) | 2877 | Triest (1900) | 179 |
| ” (City, 1901) | 2661 | Plymouth-Devonport (1901) | 177 |
| *Berlin (w. subs.) | 2073 | Stuttgart (1900) | 176 |
| ” (1900) | 1884 | Kharkov (1897) | 174 |
| Vienna (1900) | 1662 | Bolton (1901) | 168 |
| *St Petersburg (w. subs., 1897) | 1267 | Oporto (1900) | 168 |
| *Constantinople (w. subs.) | 1200 | Cardiff (1901) | 164 |
| Moscow (w. subs., 1897) | 1036 | Bremen (1900) | 163 |
| Glasgow (w. subs., 1901) | 910 | Ghent (1901) | 162 |
| Hamburg-Altona (1900) | 867 | Dundee (1901) | 161 |
| Liverpool (w. subs., 1901) | 767 | Vilna (1897) | 160 |
| Manchester-Salford (1901) | 765 | Brighton-Hove (1901) | 160 |
| Budapest (1900) | 732 | Lemberg (1900) | 160 |
| Warsaw (1897) | 638 | Liége (1901) | 160 |
| †Birmingham (w. subs., 1901) | 599 | Halle a S. (1900) | 157 |
| *Naples (comm., 1901) | 565 | Aberdeen (1901) | 153 |
| Brussels (1901) | 563 | Bologna (comm., 1901) | 152 |
| *Madrid (1900) | 540 | *Venice (comm., 1901) | 152 |
| Amsterdam (1902) | 540 | Catania (comm., 1901) | 150 |
| *Barcelona (1900) | 533 | Messina (comm., 1901) | 150 |
| Munich (1900) | 500 | Salonica | 150 |
| Marseilles (1901) | 495 | Strassburg (1900) | 150 |
| *Milan (comm., 1901) | 493 | Zürich (comm., 1900) | 150 |
| Copenhagen (w. subs., 1901) | 477 | Seville (1900) | 148 |
| *Rome (comm., 1901) | 463 | St Etienne (1901) | 147 |
| Lyons (1901) | 460 | Sunderland (1901) | 147 |
| Leipzig (1900) | 455 | Dortmund (1900) | 142 |
| Leeds (w. subs., 1901) | 444 | Danzig (1900) | 141 |
| Breslau (1900) | 423 | Mannheim (1900) | 140 |
| Odessa (1897) | 405 | Stettin (1895) | 140 |
| Dresden (1900) | 395 | Croydon (1901) | 139 |
| Edinburgh-Leith (1901) | 393 | Graz (1900) | 138 |
| Sheffield (1901) | 381 | Oldham (1901) | 137 |
| Dublin (w. subs., 1901) | 373 | Saratov (1897) | 137 |
| Cologne (1900) | 372 | Aachen (1900) | 135 |
| *Lisbon (1900) | 356 | Gothenburg (1902) | 134 |
| Belfast (1901) | 349 | Toulouse (1896) | 134 |
| Rotterdam (1902) | 348 | Nantes (1901) | 133 |
| Turin (comm., 1901) | 335 | Kazan (1897) | 132 |
| Bristol (1901) | 329 | Malaga (1900) | 130 |
| Newcastle-Gateshead (1901) | 325 | Havre (1901) | 130 |
| Prague (w. subs., 1900) | 317 | Blackburn (1901) | 128 |
| Lódz (1897) | 315 | Brunswick (1900) | 128 |
| *Palermo (comm., 1901) | 310 | Ekaterinoslav (1897) | 121 |
| Stockholm (1902) | 306 | Rostov-on-Don (1897) | 120 |
| Elbferfeld-Barmen (1901) | 299 | Essen (1900) | 119 |
| Bordeaux (w. subs., 1896) | 289 | Posen (1900) | 117 |
| Frankfort-on-Main | 288 | Preston (1901) | 113 |
| Riga (w. subs., 1897) | 283 | Astrakhan (1897) | 113 |
| Bucharest (1899) | 282 | Norwich (1901) | 112 |
| Bradford (1901) | 280 | Murcia (1900) | 112 |
| Antwerp (1901) | 273 | Birkenhead (1901) | 111 |
| ‡West Ham (1901) | 267 | Athens (1896) | 111 |
| Nuremberg (1900) | 261 | Tula (1897) | 111 |
| Kiev (1897) | 247 | Brünn (1900) | 110 |
| Hull (1901) | 241 | Kishinev (1897) | 109 |
| Nottingham (1901) | 240 | Basel (comm., 1900) | 109 |
| Hanover (1900) | 237 | Utrecht (1902) | 109 |
| Genoa (comm., 1901) | 235 | Kiel (1900) | 108 |
| Magdeburg (1900) | 230 | Reims (1901) | 108 |
| Christiania (1900) | 226 | Krefeld (1900) | 107 |
| The Hague (1902) | 222 | Derby (1901) | 106 |
| Roubaix-Tourcoing (1901) | 220 | Kassel (1900) | 106 |
| Düsseldorf (1900) | 214 | Halifax (1901) | 105 |
| *Valencia (1900) | 214 | Nice (1901) | 105 |
| Florence (comm., 1901) | 205 | Southampton (1901) | 105 |
| Leicester (1901) | 212 | Nancy (1901) | 103 |
| Lille (1901) | 211 | Szeged (1900) | 103 |
| Chemnitz (1900) | 207 | Toulon (1901) | 102 |
| Portsmouth (1901) | 189 | Cartagena (1900) | 100 |
| Comm. = commune. w. subs. = with suburbs. | |||
* In 1800 only those to which an asterisk is prefixed rose above 100,000. Thirty-four out of the 144 towns enumerated in the list above belong to the British Isles.
† The contiguous parliamentary boroughs of Birmingham and Aston Manor.
‡ Part of Greater London.