32 Maps Which Will Change How You See Europe

Regarding the last one: What the hell, Spain?

1. A map of the most popular first names in Europe.

Flickr user Alphadesigner / Via Flickr: alphadesigner

2. A map of the most popular surnames in Europe.

Reddit user Teepr / Via reddit.com

3. And the most popular work-related surnames.

Marcin Ciura / Via marcinciura.wordpress.com

"Sea warrior" definitely the coolest.

4. A map of the population density in Europe.

GFK Geomarketing / Via gfk-geomarketing.com

5. A map of homicide rates in Europe, with homicide rates in the US for comparison.

UNODC / Via unodc.org

For safety, you probably ought not to go too far either east or west of the Greenwich Meridian.

6. A map showing the areas where the Neanderthals lived.

"Carte Neandertaliens" by 120 - my own work 120. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Or at least where their fossils were found. Homo neanderthalensis died out around 39,000 years ago.

7. A map showing the spread of the Roman empire.

William Shepherd's Historical Atlas / University of Texas / Via commons.wikimedia.org

From the first Punic war in 238BC to the death of Emperor Diocletian in 311AD.

8. A map of the empire of Attila the Hun, at the time of his death in 453AD.

"Empire of Attila" by by William R. Shepherd (1871-1934) - rbedrosian.com (According to the page this map is public domain from the Historical Atlas (New York, 1911). Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - / Via commons.wikimedia.org

The Hunnic empire is in orange; the yellow below is the now divided Roman empire.

9. A map of Europe in 1097 AD, the time of the First Crusade.

William Shepherd's Historical Atlas / University of Texas / Via commons.wikimedia.org

It's hard to make out, but you can just see the routes of the crusaders picked out in black lines.

10. What the Ottoman Empire thought Europe looked like in 1513 AD, overlaid on what it actually looks like.

Piri Reis, Library of Istanbul University / Via imgur.com

They got it pretty close, in fairness. Apart from up north, but it's pretty cold up here so they may not have bothered checking all that closely.

11. A map of Europe in 1812, at the height of the Napoleonic wars.

By Alexander Altenhof (KaterBegemot) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org], via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

12. A map showing Europe at the height of the Nazi Reich, 1941-42.

Morgan Hauser, derived from File:Second world war europe 1943-1945 map en.png and File:Second world war europe 1941-1942 map en.png by users Jarry1250 and ArmadniGeneral, respectively. / Via schools-wikipedia.org

13. A map showing the average annual hours of sunshine in Europe.

commons.wikimedia.org / Via By XL3 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org or GFDL (gnu.org], via Wikimedia Commons

There are lots of excellent reasons to go to Scotland, but "topping up your tan" isn't one of them.

14. A map showing the average annual rainfall in Europe.

EEA / Via eea.europa.eu

There are lots of excellent reasons to go to Scotland, but "not getting absolutely soaked in freezing sideways rain" is not one of them.

15. A map showing the percentage of young European adults living with their parents.

Eurostat / ONS / Reddit user Bezbojnicul / Via reddit.com

16. A map showing the prevalence of blue eyes in Europe.

Western Paradigm / Wordpress / Via westernparadigm.wordpress.com

17. A map showing the prevalence of red hair in Europe.

Eupedia / Via eupedia.com

18. A map showing the prevalence of blond hair in Europe.

Eupedia / Via eupedia.com

19. The percentage of the population of each country which can hold a conversation in English.

Jakub Marian / Via jakubmarian.com

20. How Europe might look if it were divided into sections of equal population.

Flickr user Alasdair Gunn / Via flickr.com

21. A map showing average IQ by country.

Jakub Marian / Via jakubmarian.com

A note from the creator of this map: "Quality of education greatly influences IQ scores, i.e. a lower average IQ is more indicative of lower access to wide-scale quality education rather than innate intelligence."

22. A map showing life expectancy in Europe.

Eurostat / Jayman / Via jaymans.wordpress.com

23. A map showing the legality of corporal punishment in Europe – and, for comparison, the USA.

Wikimedia Commons / Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children / Via imgur.com

Green means corporal punishment is banned both at home and at school; blue means it's legal at home but banned at school; red means it's legal both at home and at school.

24. A map showing how many beers you can buy on the monthly average minimum wage around Europe.

Reddit user Adilu / Via reddit.com

25. A map showing the number of vegetarian restaurants per million people around Europe.

Jakub Marian / Via jakubmarian.com

Because it's important to know this stuff.

26. A map showing the number of internet users per 100 people across Europe.

Mapchart.net / Via mapchart.net

27. A map showing how happy people say they are across Europe.

Jaymans / Via jaymans.wordpress.com

28. A map showing the prevalence of belief in God across Europe…

"Europe belief in god" by See file history below. - Own work based on Eurobarometer's 2005 pool results (ebs 225 report http://en.pdf, pp. 9).. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons / Via upload.wikimedia.org

29. …and a map showing the prevalence of a lack of such a belief.

"Europe No Belief" by Smeggypants - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

30. A map showing the percentage of pregnancies which are aborted across Europe.

Wm Robert Johnston / Via johnstonsarchive.net

31. A map of how Europe might look if the world's ice caps melted.

Reddit user jesus_stalin / Via reddit.com

32. A map showing the age of consent across Europe.

Flickr user Joe Wolf / Via Flickr: 11438926@N00

Data from 2007. In fact, Spain put its age of consent up to 16 earlier this year. Still though, what the hell, Spain.