population in the largest city-% of urban population

population in urban agglomerations > 1 million-% of total popualtion

Air quality in urban centres directly endangers the health of people living and travelling there every day, but also the health of the population as a whole: while large cities in the European Union experience one pollution peak after another, around 400 000 premature deaths every year are caused by fine particulates, largely emitted by the diesel engines that account for more than 55% of all vehicles on European roads.

Though further research is required, the conclusions from the studies which have been carried out suggest that economic diversification from agriculture to services tends to happen at a faster pace in lowland than in mountainous regions, that the existence of large cities in mountain areas or nearby give an important stimulus to industrial activity (or, alternatively, that the wealth of resources in mountain areas can lead to the development of large cities in their vicinity), and that service employment tends to be high in the more prosperous mountain areas, mainly in tourism (such as in the Alps) or in public services in sparsely populated areas (especially i ...[+++]n Sweden and Finland).

In 2003 the population share of people from non-western origin is at 10% (8.9% in 2000), in the four major cities it is above 30%.

In the UK, for example, the number of cases of violent assault is twice as high in large as in medium-sized cities and the number of murders three times higher.