Topic: The People of the Region

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TopicThe People of the Region
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The People

• Remember that Western Europe contains people who
  speak a variety of languages, practice a variety
  of religions, and hold contrasting ideas about
  many things. Even with these differences, the
  peoples of Western Europe have a lot in common.
• - a very modern and industrial region

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Languages

• The people can be grouped into several major
  language families
• Germanic (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German,
  and English)
• Romance (French, Spanish, Portuguese, and
  Italian)
• Other languages include Finnish, Basque, and
  Greek

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Religion

• Majority of the people are Christian -
• Roman Catholic (in several countries, the
  majority of the people)
• Protestantism
• Lutheran Church in Germany and Scandinavia
• Anglican Church in England
• Jews and Muslims also live in the region.

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Cities

• Western Europe is one of the most urbanized of
  all the worlds regions.
• ½ the people live in towns and cities linked by
  railroads and modern freeways.

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Governments

• All major nations of the region have democratic
  governments.
• -Portugal and Spain are young
  democracies (were
• dictatorships)
• -United Kingdom (long history of
  democracy in
• 
  Great Britain)
• Some nations are constitutional monarchies with
  kings/queens serving as figure heads only and
  have no real power.
• Other nations are republics - like France where
  heads of state are elected.
• Various political parties deal with what the
  governments policies should be - the USA has 2
  major parties.

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Population

• More and more people have jobs in service
  industries such as healthcare, government,
  recreation, and education.
• However, there are still many farmers.

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Country Population Life Expectancy Literacy Rate GDP ()
Denmark 5,305,048 73 M 79 F 100 22,700
UK 57,591,677 75 M 80 F 100 20,400
Iceland 3,606,952 77 M 81 F 100 19,800
Austria 8,132,505 74 M 81 F 100 19,700
France 58,609,285 74 M 83 F 99 20,900
Switzerland 7,240,463 76 M 82 F 100 22,600
Greece 10,616,055 76 M 81 F 95 10,000
U.S.A. 300,000,000 73 M 79 F 96 28,600