Which areas in Europe have the largest share of people over 65?

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Europe is often referred to as the ‘Old Continent’. Not just because of its long history, but also because of its ageing population. On this map we’re going to see which areas in Europe have the largest share of elderly people.

What becomes clear straight away, is that most of the darker areas are more rural area. In most countries urban areas have a lower percentage of elderly people. It’s also interesting to see that there are some very strong differences between countries.

Turkey has by far the lowest share of elderly people. Albania, North Macedonia, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Ireland and Iceland also have a lower share compared to other European countries.

The oldest area in Europe, is Evrytania in Greece, where 37.4% of the population is aged 65 or over. Greece itself is a country with a large elderly population. In most of Greece more than 22.5% of the population is aged 65 or over.

The north-west of Spain and the east of Portugal also have a high share of elderly people. Ourense, Zamora and Alto Tâmega make it into the European top 10. Italy and France also have a decent number of areas with a large elderly population.

Further north we can see that Germany also has a large number of areas with a high elderly population. The vast majority of them are in the east. Germany has even 3 areas in the European top 10. Apart from Germany, the UK and Finland also have quite a number of areas with a large elderly population.

The data for this map comes from Eurostat. It shows the data for the NUTS 3 regions.