Unlike in many developing regions of the world, Europe is not experiencing major population growth.  Despite this, Europe is very densely populated.

Urban areas take up 1% of Europe's land.  The continent is highly urbanized now, though unlike in other areas of the world, people are not currently migrating to the cities in great numbers.

These densely populated urban centers are the cause of many of Europe's environmental problems.  Also, problems are created by the very high levels of economic development and correspondingly high levels of production and consumption.

Because Europe is so densely populated, many individual households consume resources of which Europe does not really have sufficient supplies.  Also, since European families tend to be relatively small, inefficient use of natural resources inevitably takes place.

Though it contains less than one-fourth of the world population, Europe consumes about 40% of the world's energy each year.  Many of Europe's fuel supplies come from abroad, because the continent lacks the resources to create the amount of energy it uses.

Major problems in the consumption of other important natural resources exist as well.  Resource usage has significant effects on the current environment, and will affect Europe in the future when non-renewable resources are depleted.

Production processes produce such negative outputs as emission and hazardous waste.  Some technology, such as automobiles, is also rapidly degrading the environment as industrialization increases and development spreads to Eastern Europe.