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Population mid-year Population density (per km2) Population in urban areas Population as % of total population of UNECE Average annual population growth rate Population by age (Women) Population by age (Men)

Population age structure
Population ageing is well advanced in most UNECE countries with the proportion of the population over 65 years of age reaching 15 per cent in many countries (twice the world level). In most countries the median age is well over 30 years, the highest being 41.6 years in Italy, and the lowest in Turkmenistan: only 20.3 years. The youngest populations are found in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, with close to 40 per cent of the population under 15 years of age. As a result of having high proportions of non-working age population, the dependency ratios of these countries are extremely high (over 75 per cent).

Sex ratio
Only one country in the region – Turkey - has more men than women, with 98 women per 100 men. Estonia and Latvia have the highest proportion of women, 117 women per 100 men. With regard to sex distribution over 65 years of age, all countries except Andorra (equal share) have substantially more women than men. This is due to the fact that women’s life expectancy is 4-13 years higher than men’s. The highest rate of women to men over 65 years of age is found in the Russian Federation, with 218 women per 100 men – this is also the country where the gap between the life expectancy of men and women is the biggest.

Fertility and mortality trends
Fertility has declined in all regions of the world in the last 40 years, and is expected to continue to do so as we approach 2020. Simultaneously, mortality has decreased in most parts of the world, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s than in more recent decades. Europe, however, is the big exception. Owing partly to an ageing population, mortality has steadily increased since the 1960s and is expected to continue to do so in the coming decades.

Population growth
The greatest population growth during 1995-2000 has been in Turkmenistan – over 3%, followed by Israel, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. The highest average annual growth rate in the European Union is in Luxembourg. On the contrary, in many East European and CIS countries, the population is slowly decreasing. This is most visible in Croatia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, where the population declined on average more than 1% per year during 1995-2000 .

Population density
Extreme contrasts can be found in the UNECE region in population density. With only three persons per square km, Canada and Iceland are the most sparsely populated countries, whereas Monaco, with more than 17 000 persons per square km, is the most densely populated country.

Urbanization
There are also great contrasts in the proportion of people living in urban areas. With an urban population of 100 per cent, Monaco is the most urbanized country in the UNECE region, followed by Belgium with 97.4 per cent. On the other hand, the least urbanized country is Liechtenstein with 21.5 per cent living in urban areas, followed by Tajikistan with 27.7 per cent. The biggest urban agglomerations in the UNECE region are found in the United States: New York with approximately 16.7 million inhabitants and Los Angeles with 13.2 million inhabitants. The biggest urban agglomeration in Europe is Paris (9.6 million) closely followed by Istanbul (9.0 million).

Foreign population, refugees and asylum seekers
The United States is the country in the UNECE region with the largest number of foreigners, whereas Germany has the largest number in Europe (Table 1.11). The largest population of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is found in the Russian Federation, with more than 1.1 million people. Also, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro and United States have more than half a million people of concern to the UNHCR (Table 1.13). The largest number of refugees is found in Germany (over 900 000), United States (over 500 000) and Serbia and Montenegro (over 400 000). The largest number of asylum seekers in 2001 was found in Germany and United Kingdom (over 88 000), and United States (over 86 000).

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