Sofia Trails EU Capitals by Population Density

The Bulgarian capital Sofia is not among the densely populated cities in Europe, according the Eurostat data.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, released Thursday its 2012 regional yearbook. The publication gives an overview of the most recent economic, social and demographic developments in the 27 NUTS level 2 regions and, for some indicators, the 1 303 NUTS level 3 regions of the 27 Member States of the European Union as well as, when available, the regions in the four EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), the acceding country (Croatia) and three of the candidate countries (Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey).

Among the NUTS 3 regions, the population density varied from over 20 000 inhabitants per km2 in Paris in France to 2 persons per km2 in Lappi in Finland. Sofia registers a density of 960 people per km2 with a total population of 1.2 million people and an area of nearly 500 km2. Varna is second in Bulgaria with 125 people per km2 with a population of 470 000 and an area of 240 km2.

After Paris, London is second in Europe by the density of population, followed by Berlin and Madrid, which are the only European capitals with population exceeding 3 million while 20 other big cities have a population between 1 and 2 million.

Bucharest, Brussels, Munich, Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest are all among the most densely populated cities in Europe.

Two Bulgarian cities fall in the category of less densely populated locations – Vidin and Lovech.

According to the yearbook, only two regions in Bulgaria and two in Romania have shares of agriculture in the economy of 10% or more.

In 2009, agriculture in the EU27 generated 1.2% of the total gross added value of the economy, compared with 1.9% in 2000. There were 22 regions in the EU which had a share of more than 5% of agriculture in value added; seven in Romania, four each in Bulgaria and Greece, two each in Hungary, Poland and Portugal andone region in France.

The regions with the highest share of agriculture in the economy were Severozapaden (14.1%) and Severentsentralen (11.9%) in Bulgaria, Nord-Est (10.2%) and Sud-Vest Oltenia (9.7%) in Romania, Severoiztochen (9.1%) in Bulgaria, Thessalia (8.9%) in Greece, Podlaskie (8.9%) in Poland and Champagne-Ardenne (7.9%) in France.