Life in Northern and Southern Europe Lesson 3

Aging Populations Standard of living has increased Infant mortality rate is down (babies who die within a year) Why is the population not growing faster? Birthrates have declined (fewer people having children) Older people are the majority of the population

Where People Live (SE) More people are living in cities than ever before Italy early 1900’s: Rome, Milan, Naples had about 500,000 residents Today those cites combined have almost 10 million! 60% of Greece is city dwellers 75% of Spain’s population live in cities (The Meseta Central Region looks almost empty) Madrid, Spain has a population of more than 5 million Population density of Madrid is 1,750 persons per square mile Population density of all of Spain is 220 persons per square mile

Where People Live (NE) Northern Europe’s population is even more concentrated in the cities Half of Iceland’s population live in the Capital Reykjavik

Ethnic and Language Groups Northern Europe: Mostly Homogeneous with some diversity (immigrants from Asia/Africa) Most of the original settlers were Sami, or Lapps Most made their living by fishing or hunting Denmark, Sweden and Norway developed a German based language Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian Similar to each other Finland (Finnish) is closer to Slavic Unrelated to the other languages Closer to Hungarian and Estonian languages

Southern Europe: Mostly homogeneous, but more diversified Greece for example has small populations of Turks, Albanians, Macedonians and Rom (gypsies) People of Italy speak Italian, but in it’s northern regions minority groups also speak German, French or Slovenian Spain has multiple dialects of Spanish: Castilian is the most common others include Catalan and Galicia

Religion and Arts The Protestant Reformation was very successful in Northern Europe Many people converted from being Catholic to Lutheran More than three-quarters of all people living in Northern Europe belong to a Lutheran church. The Reformation had little impact on Southern Europe Spain, Portugal and Italy still belong to Roman Catholicism Greece is 98% Greek Orthodox Muslim immigrants, however, have been changing the religious makeup

Spanish music has been influential all over Europe Because of the Renaissance, Italy made many contributions to art and architecture Spanish music has been influential all over Europe The Spanish, more than any other people, made the guitar a serious musical instrument LEGO building blocks were invented in Denmark Tour of Lego Factory in Denmark

Renaissance Art

Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain

Daily Life Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have a literacy rate of almost 100% (Everyone can read good!) Taxes are relatively high in the countries of Northern Europe, because of welfare capitalism The government uses tax money to provide services to all citizens such as healthcare and education

Earning a Living Northern Europe Work in service industries Standard of living is high High taxes Practice welfare capitalism Government uses tax money to provide a variety of services to all citizens Examples: Health care and education Intention of welfare capitalism To ensure that all people have access to those aspects of life considered essential Even people who might not be able to afford them

The EU (European Union) Goals: To provide social, economic, and security policies to it’s members Northern European members- Denmark, Sweden and Finland Southern Europe- Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece

Challenges Cultural Conflict- the immigration issue There is growing number of immigrants from non-European nations flooding Northern and Southern Europe This creates a changing cultural landscape that sometimes leads to conflict and violence

Recession 2008 Financial crisis swept the world Europe experienced a recession – a period of slow economic growth or decline Iceland 3 biggest banks failed Spain and Greece Hit hard Greece Unable to pay its debts Became a threat to the economies of all the European countries