Europe Facts

0.3% of solar energy from the Sahara is enough to power the whole of Europe.

It was once against the law to slam your car door in a city in Switzerland!

In parts of Albania and Bulgaria, particularly among older generations, a side-to-side head shake means 'yes' while an upward head tilt means 'no' — the opposite of most countries.

Nearly 60 million Christmas trees are grown each year in Europe.

Europe is the only continent without a hot desert.

For 4,000 years after they started making cheese, Ancient Europeans were lactose intolerant.

2% of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits.

There are more people living in London (8.3m) than the whole of Denmark (5.6m).

Chocolate was once considered medicine, prescribed by European doctors to treat angina and depression as late as the 19th century.

Latvia has the largest gender imbalance in Europe. Women outnumber men by over 130,000 — in a country of just 1.86 million people.