England has the dubious honor of overtaking The Netherlands as the busiest country in Europe. For every square kilometer of land in England, there are 395 people, compared to “just” 393 people in The Netherlands.
Of course, the big difference is that The Netherlands has all those people spread out over a fairly small portion of land, in England you can drive a couple of hours and reach Wales (140 per sq. KM) or Scotland (167 per sq. KM), where the population density is much lower.
Then again, the same can be said for the Dutch, as almost 50% of the country is just an hour or less away from Germany (230.9 per sq. KM) where things are much quieter outside the major cities. As Holland continues to build in the few remaining open spaces between its “randstad” cities, England won’t hold onto this record much longer.
Naturally, politicians would not be what they are today if they didn’t use this news as a new excuse to complain about immigration. Then again, England has a long way to go if they plan to catch up with Bangladesh (1045 people per square kilometer) which has the largest population density of any major country. Once you start looking at all territories, Macao is the clear winner with a little over 18,000 people for every square Kilometer!