An Incredibly Detailed Map of Europe's Population Shifts

Ireland is interesting. It&#x27;s long been the sick man in terms of population growth since 1845 up until the late 1980s and now is the odd man out in Europe as being one of the few countries that can grow its population.<p>Ireland has had a recession since 2008 but ended last year with a return to slow growth and during this time had high unemployment and high emigration. It&#x27;s expected to be the fastest growing European economy by far over the next 12 months. Still Irelands prosperity, high minimum wage and generous welfare benefits are attracting immigration from Eastern Europe and North Africa in particular. This compounded with Irelands high fertility rate accentuates her population growth above her neighbours.<p>These trends are expected to continue even as Europe exits recession and returns to growth.<p>The images surprised me though - it suggests all of Ireland is growing somewhat evenly when the truth is that while most if is growing Dublin and her surrounding area and Cork are growing much faster than the rest and the picture doesn&#x27;t indicate that though I&#x27;m sure the data will.

Links to high-res downloads from BBSR:<p>JPEG: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbsr.bund.de&#x2F;BBSR&#x2F;DE&#x2F;Home&#x2F;Topthemen&#x2F;Downloads&#x2F;bevoelkerungsentwicklung.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbsr.bund.de&#x2F;BBSR&#x2F;DE&#x2F;Home&#x2F;Topthemen&#x2F;Downloads&#x2F;bev...</a><p>PDF: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbsr.bund.de&#x2F;BBSR&#x2F;DE&#x2F;Home&#x2F;Topthemen&#x2F;Downloads&#x2F;Bild.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbsr.bund.de&#x2F;BBSR&#x2F;DE&#x2F;Home&#x2F;Topthemen&#x2F;Downloads&#x2F;Bil...</a>

Here&#x27;s a dynamic map I&#x27;ve made on the same subject, showing a macro view, country-level shifts : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;laem.github.io&#x2F;eurpop&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;laem.github.io&#x2F;eurpop&#x2F;</a>

&quot;Scotland’s Northeast shows remarkable population gains, a likely result of the North Sea oil industry concentrated in Aberdeen.&quot;<p>I think you can probably explain the two red blobs near Aberdeen on oil and the wealth it has brought to that area but at least one of the other red blobs further west must be the Aviemore&#x2F;Strathspey area which has become incredibly popular for outdoor sports and general high quality of life.<p>Amusingly, although Aviemore is described as a &quot;boom town&quot; it&#x27;s population only grew by 36% in the decade to 2011 adding an extra 956 people :-)<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strathspey-herald.co.uk&#x2F;News&#x2F;Aviemore-hailed-as-a-boom-town-17012014.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strathspey-herald.co.uk&#x2F;News&#x2F;Aviemore-hailed-as-a...</a>

There are some really interesting things on that map. The apparent huge influx of people into France and the UK is one. Another amazing thing is that after what I think is around $1 trillion dollars spent in former east German states post reunification, the outflow of people still looks to be strong.

Shows percent change... but not the magnitude of the change.<p>Seeing a map that combined both percentage and magnitude to compute the colors (perhaps similar to the Tf–idf calculation?) would be much more interpretable. 50% of people leaving the middle of a forest doesn&#x27;t really tell me much, versus 50% change in a dense city.

Anyone know of anything like this for the States?

It is interesting that many NH posters have a negative view on immigration from eastern europe. However, the effect on the countries from which people emigrate (I am somewhat familiar with Baltics) is quite tough. Imagine having a large portion of hard working energetic people suddenly leave.

Looks like people are moving to the coastal areas. And I can&#x27;t blame them. Once you live next to a large body of water, being land-locked is suffocating.<p>Another obvious trend is people moving to large cities.

They&#x27;ve left the Falklands off the map! How come? I mean, Guyane&#x27;s there!

Anyone have any idea why in the countries most hit by the recession (Spain, Italy and Greece to name a few) there&#x27;s striking divergence between population growth specifically decreasing Greece on one hand while increasing in Italy and Spain in general despite the three of them share the same dynamics at play and especially Greece and Spain?