More than 100 million people in Europe live in coastal communities, islands, and outermost regions.
Social PolicyEuropean Union
- Omissions
- The 95 million figure published by the European Commission refers specifically to people living along coastlines and in coastal areas of the 22 EU coastal Member States; the island population (around 17 million) and outermost-region population (around 5 million) are separate figures that partly overlap with coastal areas.
- The aggregated figure exceeding 100 million (around 112 million) comes from a secondary source that sums coastal and island populations; no single primary official source states a combined '100 million+' total, so potential double-counting between 'coastal' and 'island' categories cannot be fully ruled out.
- The claim refers to 'Europe' while the underlying statistics concern the European Union (coastal areas of 22 Member States), which is a slightly narrower geographic scope.
- Sources
- PrimaryEuropean Commission – Representation in Cyprus: Commission presents first-ever EU strategies for islands and coastal communities95 million people living along the 70,000 km of EU coastlines and in coastal areas across 22 EU Member States.
- SecondaryEU Perspectives: 4000 islands, 70 000 km of coast, 112 million peopleHeadline '4000 islands, 70 000 km of coast, 112 million people'; 'The EU is home to more than 4,000 islands, including the three island nations of Cyprus, Ireland and Malta. Together, they are home to around 17 million people.'; 'Another 95 million people live along Europe's 70,000 kilometres of coastline.'
- SecondaryEuropean Parliament – Fact Sheets on the European Union: Outermost regionsAround five million people live in the outermost regions, some of which have experienced significant population growth owing to inward migration.