Prof Alasdair Rae at the University of Sheffield has crunched data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to locate the densest square kilometre in every European country – the top 15 are shown below.
15. London, England
Most densely populated 1km sq: 20,477 people. Britain’s most densely populated square kilometre is in west London. It has just over 20,000 people living there – roughly a 10th of the most closely packed area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Cardiff contains Wales’s densest sq km with 11,291 people; Edinburgh has Scotland’s with 11,069 and Belfast contains Northern Ireland’s, with 8,555.
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14: Geneva, Switzerland
Most densely populated 1km sq: 21,456 people. There are 33 one kilometre squares in Europe with a population of 40,000 or more – 23 in Spain and 10 in France.
13: Lisbon, Portugal
Most densely populated 1km sq: 21,823 people.
12: Naples, Italy
Most densely populated 1km sq: 22,113 people.
11: Copenhagen, Denmark
Most densely populated 1km sq: 22,381 people
10: Prague, Czech Republic
Most densely populated 1km sq: 23,249 people.
9: Berlin, Germany
Most densely populated 1km sq: 23,379 people.
8: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Most densely populated 1km sq: 23,485 people.
7: Sofia, Bulgaria
Most densely populated 1km sq: 23,934 people.
6: Stockholm, Sweden
Most densely populated 1km sq: 26,120 people.
5: Athens, Greece
Most densely populated 1km sq: 28,880 people.
4: Brussels, Belgium
Most densely populated 1km sq: 29,100 people.
3: Szczecin, Poland
Most densely populated 1km sq: 32,752 people.
2: Paris, France
Most densely populated 1km sq: 52,218 people.
1: Barcelona, Spain
Most densely populated 1km sq: 53,199 people.
Data taken from EU Grid. All images: Alasdair Rae/Google Maps
This feature originally appeared in The Guardian.
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