Southern Europe

Map
Structure
Subregions	Iberia, Italian peninsula
Demographics
Area	899,248 km²
Population	109,358,542
Population density	121.61/km²
Life expectancy	xx.xx
Major cities	Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Milan, Naples
Major languages	Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Basque
Economy
Total GDP (PPP)	$2626.6 billion
GDP (PPP) per capita	$24,000
Unemployment rate	9.37%
Communications
Total telephone subscribers	151,802,600
Total telephone penetration (%)	138.81%

Southern Europe is a region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, after the bordering sea, the Mediterranean Sea.

It has no precise definition but is generally taken to consist of:

• The Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Andorra)
• The Italian peninsula (Italy, Vatican City, San Marino)
• Malta

Sometimes, Southern France and Monaco are also included in Southern Europe, since they are on the Mediterranean Sea. Culturally, the south of France is fairly similar to Spain and parts of Italy. On the other hand, far northern Italy is sometimes seen as being part of Central Europe due to common culture, geography and history with the Alpine countries.

Corsica is, as an individual island, considered part of Southern Europe, geographically and perhaps culturally. However, because it is part of France, it is part of the Western Europe region.

Cyprus and Greece are sometimes seen as Southern European although they are significantly more eastward than the countries above. For this reason, they are usually included in Southeastern Europe (see below for explanations).

Southeastern Europe

Southeastern European countries include Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Cyprus and the European part of Turkey. They are sometimes grouped together with Italy, Spain and the other countries mentioned above, although most of the time they form a separate region known as Southeastern Europe. The reason why Southeastern Europe is usually separated from Southern Europe is due to cultural, historical and economic differences. For example, most countries of Southeastern Europe are quite a lot poorer than those of Southern Europe. Additionally, all of them except Greece and Turkey were formerly Communist. Thirdly, while Southern Europe is mainly Catholic, Southeastern Europe is predominantly Eastern Orthodox. That is not to say that the two regions don't have features in common - for example, Southern Europe has a lot more in common to Southeastern Europe than, say, Central Europe or Northern Europe.