Percentage of People Living On An Island In Every European Country

Map created by ceskemapyThe map above looks at what share of the population of each European country lives on an island. For some countries like the UK or Ireland it’s pretty obvious the number is going to be 100% as they are island nations.

However for some like Denmark at 55% it’s bit less obvious (Copenhagen is built on the islands of Zealand and Amager).

Here’s the list below by country with a little explanation for some countries:

Island Countries 100%

Cyprus: 100%
Iceland: 100%
Ireland: 100%
Malta: 100%
United Kingdom: 100%

Countries With 10%+

Denmark: ~55% (as noted above Copenhagen is located on two main islands)
Greece: ~15% (Greece has 6,000+ islands, but only 227 are inhabited, Crete being the most populous)
Italy: ~11% (Italy has 450+ islands including Sardinia and Sicily)

Countries With 1% – 10%

Spain: ~7% (Main ones are the Canary and Balearic Islands)
Sweden: ~6% (despite claiming to have the most islands in the world at 267,570, relatively few people live on them; Södertörn was not included even though it is considered an island by Sweden.)
Netherlands: ~5% (Mostly on IJsselmonde)
Portugal: ~5% (Mostly living on Madeira and the Azores)
Estonia: ~3% (Saaremaa is the biggest)
France: ~4% (Main islands are Réunion, Martinique and Corsica)
Russia: ~4% (Sakhalin is the most populous Russian island)
Slovakia ~4% (The island of Žitný ostrov)
Croatia: ~3% (most populous are Krk and Korčula)
Norway: ~2% (Tromsøya and Hinnøya have the most people)
Hungary ~2% (Mostly on Csepel Island)
Finland: ~1% (mostly on the Åland Islands)