Southern Europe

The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical geographical, phytogeographic or climatic approach. Most coastal countries in the United Nations-designated southern Europe border the Mediterranean Sea. Exceptions are Portugal which has only Atlantic coastline, Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia, which are landlocked, and Bulgaria, which borders the Black Sea.

Geographical definition


Geographically, southern Europe is the southern half of the landmass of Europe. This definition is relative, with no clear limits.

Countries geographically considered part of southern Europe include:

Iberian Peninsula

 * 🇦🇩 andorra
 * 🇵🇹 portugal (including: Madeira and Azores)
 * 🇪🇸 spain (including: Balearic Islands)
 * 🇬🇮 gibraltar (British overseas territory)

Italian Peninsula

 * 🇮🇹 italy (including: Sardinia and Sicily)
 * 🇸🇲 san marino
 * 🇻🇦 vatican city

Balkans

 * 🇦🇱 albania
 * 🇧🇦 bosnia and herzegovina
 * 🇧🇬 bulgaria
 * 🇭🇷 croatia (below Sava and Kupa)
 * 🇬🇷 greece (including: Aegean Islands, Crete, and Ionian Islands)
 * 🇲🇪 montenegro
 * 🇷🇸 serbia (below Sava and Danube)
 * 🇲🇰 macedonia
 * 🇹🇷 turkey (European Turkey)

Other

 * 🇭🇷 croatia (northern regions (Slavonia, Zagreb, Međimurje and Zagorje) are sometimes considered as Central Europe)
 * 🇨🇾 cyprus (geographically part of Asia but considered European for historic and cultural reasons)
 * 🇲🇹 malta (including: Gozo)
 * 🇷🇴 romania (Northern Dobruja is considered Southern European and sometimes Wallachia. Transylvania is sometimes considered as Central Europe)
 * 🇷🇸 serbia (northern regions (Vojvodina, northern Belgrade, Mačva region) are sometimes considered as Central Europe)
 * 🇸🇮 slovenia (region of Primorska)

United Nations geoscheme
For its official works and publications, the United Nations Organization groups countries under a classification of regions. Southern Europe, as defined by the United Nations (the sub-regions according to the UN), comprises the following countries and territories:


 * 🇦🇱 albania
 * 🇦🇩 andorra
 * 🇧🇦 bosnia and herzegovina
 * 🇭🇷 croatia
 * 🇬🇮 gibraltar (can be included in Western Europe politically as it is a territory of the 🇬🇧 united kingdom)
 * 🇬🇷 greece (including: Aegean Islands, Crete, and Ionian Islands)
 * 🇮🇹 italy (including: Sardinia and Sicily)
 * 🇲🇰 macedonia
 * 🇲🇹 malta (including: Gozo)
 * 🇲🇪 montenegro
 * 🇵🇹 portugal (including: Madeira and Azores)
 * 🇸🇲 san marino
 * 🇷🇸 serbia
 * 🇸🇮 slovenia
 * 🇪🇸 spain (including: Balearic Islands)
 * 🇻🇦 vatican city

As of 2009, there were 163,865,210 people living in Southern Europe with an average population density of 74 inhabitants per square kilometer:

Climatical definition
Southern Europe's climate is that of the Mediterranean climate, which has become a typically known characteristic of the area. The humid subtropical climate can be considered too as a Southern Europe climate (Northern Italy, Eastern Romania and Bulgaria).

The area presents similar landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains, pine forests and olive trees

The area which is considered climatically Southern Europe is:
 * 🇦🇱 albania
 * 🇧🇦 bosnia and herzegovina (coasts)
 * 🇭🇷 croatia (coasts)
 * 🇨🇾 cyprus
 * 🇫🇷 france (southeast coast, and the island of Corsica)
 * 🇬🇮 gibraltar
 * 🇬🇷 greece
 * 🇮🇹 italy (except the Po River plain and Alps region)
 * 🇲🇰 macedonia
 * 🇲🇹 malta
 * 🇲🇨 monaco
 * 🇲🇪 montenegro
 * 🇵🇹 portugal
 * 🇷🇸 serbia (south)
 * 🇸🇮 slovenia (coasts)
 * 🇪🇸 spain (the whole of the country except the northern coast)
 * 🇹🇷 turkey (only European territories, western and southern coast)

Phytogeographical definition
Southern Europe's flora is that of the Mediterranean Region, one of the phytochoria recognized by Armen Takhtajan. The Mediterranean and Submediterranean climate regions in Europe comprise the following countries and territories:
 * 🇦🇱 Albania
 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇧🇬 Bulgaria
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia
 * 🇨🇾 Cyprus
 * 🇫🇷 France (the southern and southeastern part, and the island of Corsica)
 * 🇬🇷 Greece (including: Aegean Islands, Crete, and Ionian Islands)
 * 🇭🇺 Hungary (the southwestern part till the Balaton lake)
 * 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 🇲🇰 Macedonia
 * 🇲🇹 Malta
 * 🇲🇪 Montenegro
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal
 * 🇷🇴 Romania (only the southern part along the Danube river)
 * 🇷🇸 Serbia
 * 🇸🇮 Slovenia
 * 🇪🇸 Spain (except for the northwestern part)
 * 🇨🇭 Switzerland (only Ticino)
 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine (only the southern part of Crimea)

Romance languages
Romance languages and modern Greek are the heirs of Latin and ancient Greek as the main historical languages of the mediterranean area. Romance languages have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of southern-western Europe: the "latin arch" (Romania and Moldava are an exception on that point); modern Greek is used in Greece and Cyprus.

Eastern Romance:

Romanian: 🇲🇩 Moldova, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇷🇸 Serbia, 🇺🇦 Ukraine

Aromanian: 🇦🇱 Albania, 🇧🇬 Bulgaria , 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇲🇰 Macedonia

Megleno-Romanian: 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇲🇰 Macedonia,

Istro-Romanian: 🇭🇷 Croatia

Southern Romance:

Sardinian: 🇮🇹 Italy: Sardinia

Corsican: 🇮🇹 Italy: Corsica

Italo Western:

Istriot: 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇭🇷 Croatia and 🇸🇮 Slovenia

Italian: 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇸🇲 San Marino, 🇻🇦 Vatican City, 🇲🇹 Malta, 🇪🇷 Eritrea, 🇸🇴 Somalia, 🇱🇾 Libya, Istria (in 🇸🇮 Slovenia and 🇭🇷 Croatia)

Judeo-Italian: 🇮🇹 Italy

Corsican: 🇮🇹 Italy: Corsica

Neapolitan language: 🇮🇹 Italy

Sicilian: 🇮🇹 Italy: Sicily,  Apulia, Calabria Catalan: 🇦🇩 Andorra, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇹 Italy

Aragonese: 🇪🇸 Spain: Aragon

Greek language

 * 🇦🇱 albania: Himariote
 * 🇬🇷 greece: Cappadocian, Cretan, Maniot, Pontic,Tsakonian, Romano-Greek, Yevanic
 * 🇨🇾 cyprus: Cypriot Greek
 * 🇮🇹 italy: Griko
 * 🇹🇷 turkey: Pontic
 * 🇺🇦 ukraine: Crimean Greek

Albanian language
Albanian is also a language rooted in southern Europe, spoken in the Balkan peninsula.

Arvanitika:
 * 🇬🇷 greece

Gheg:
 * 🇦🇱 Northern Albania
 * 🇲🇰 West Macedonia
 * undefined
 * 🇲🇪 South-east Montenegro
 * 🇷🇸 South Serbia

Tosk
 * 🇦🇱 Southern Albania
 * 🇲🇰 West Macedonia
 * undefined
 * 🇬🇷 Greek Epirus

South Slavic languages
Slavic languages that are now spoken in southern Europe are not rooted in the Mediterranean area nor spoken mainly in those areas: In that sense those languages are not part of the linguistic definition of southern Europe, since they are logically associated with their "core". That said, southern Slavic languages form a quite homogenous area, geographically separated from north Slavic languages by Hungary and Romania.


 * 🇧🇦 bosnia and herzegovina: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
 * 🇧🇬 bulgaria: Bulgarian
 * 🇭🇷 croatia: Croatian
 * 🇲🇰 macedonia: Macedonian
 * 🇲🇪 montenegro: Montenegrin, Serbian
 * 🇷🇸 serbia: Serbian
 * 🇸🇮 slovenia: Slovene

Germanic languages
Due to the English colonisation in Malta and Gibraltar, Germanic languages have a little presence in southern Europe, far from the core of Germanic languages in northwestern Europe. Malta uses English as a second language in some cases (after Maltese, which still is the original and main native language). In Gibraltar, English is the official language but Spanish and Llanito (mix of Andalucian, Spanish with some English) are also spoken.


 * 🇬🇮 gibraltar: English
 * 🇲🇹 malta: English

Semitic languages

 * 🇲🇹 malta: Maltese

Basque language
The Basque language is a linguistic isolate spoken by the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France.


 * 🇪🇸 spain: Basque
 * 🇫🇷 france: Basque

Turkic languages
Turkish language is a non Indo-European that due to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Europe has even today presence in many countries in the Balkans. The only countries though that Turkish has an official status is the geographically Asian and transcontinental countries of Cyprus and Turkey respectively.
 * 🇨🇾 cyprus: Turkish
 * 🇹🇷 turkey: Turkish