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The term Southern Europe, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, economic, civilizational and socio-cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical geographic, phytogeographic or climatic approach.
Geographically, southern Europe is the southern half of the landmass of Europe. This definition is relative, with no clear limits.
Countries geographically considered part of southern Europe include:
For its official works and publications, the United Nations Organization groups countries under a classification of regions. Southern Europe, as defined by the United Nations (the sub-regions according to the UN), comprises the following countries and territories:[2]
As of 2009, there were 153,506,431 people living in southern Europe with an average population density of 117 inhabitants per square kilometer:[2]
Southern Europe's most emblematic climate is that of the Mediterranean climate, which has become a typically known characteristic of the area. Those areas of Mediterranean climate present similar vegetations and landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains, pine forests and olive trees.
The area which belongs to the Mediterranean climate is:
Humid subtropical climate, as well as the temperate subtropical type, are found in the following Southern European countries:
Southern Europe's flora is that of the Mediterranean Region, one of the phytochoria recognized by Armen Takhtajan. The Mediterranean and Submediterranean climate regions in Europe comprise the following countries and territories:[3]
Romance languages and modern Greek are the heirs of Latin and ancient Greek, which served as the main historical languages of the Mediterranean region.
Romance languages have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of Southwestern Europe. (See the Latin Arch.)
Due to the English colonisation of Malta and Gibraltar, Germanic languages have a small presence in Southern Europe, far from the core of Germanic languages in Northwestern Europe. Malta uses English as a second language in some cases (after Maltese, which still is the original and main native language). In Gibraltar, English is the official language but Spanish and Llanito (mix of Andalusian Spanish with some English) are also spoken.
The Basque language is a linguistic isolate spoken by the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France.