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Spain has a lot of rugged mountain areas, and some desert areas in the south too. Just like in California, the most populous state in the US, that means a high percentage of the land has low population density. Any other country in Europe with rugged mountain areas will also have low population density in those regions. Romania with the Carpathian Mountains comes to mind.
Germany, aside from the Alps stretching across southern Bavaria, has relatively little land that is too rugged to restrict human habitation. I live in the eastern part of Germany in Saxony state, not far north of the border with Czechia. The Ore Mountains that run along this border region are not so rugged and there are villages or small towns every few kilometers in all directions. It does not feel like a heavily populated area, once I get a short distance outside of any of the larger cities. I ride my bicycle around the rural roads of the region and enjoy the lack of vehicle traffic in most places.
The Nordic states of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland all have the lowest population densities of any European country. https://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=21000&r=eu&l=en
Much of Scandinavia consists of rocks and ice, and is very poorly suited for agriculture - very little top soil, and it's’s also too dark and too cold for growing crops: in most of the country, even the hardiest plants will only grow for about 4-5 months of the year.
Here is a good article that explains density in Europe.
Spain has a population density of 93 people per km², giving the impression of a sparsely populated country. This is borne out in the map, where much of Spain appears to be empty; much more so than any other large European country.
Spain contains within it more than 505,000 1km squares. But only 13% of them are lived in.
This means that the "lived density" for Spain is in fact 737 people per km², rather than 93. So even though the settlement pattern appears sparse, people are actually quite tightly packed together.
In fact, Spain could claim to be the most densely populated major European country by this measure, despite its appearance on the map.
Ireland is somewhat like Spain. About 33% of the total island population of 6M, lives within about 50-75 KM of Dublin. Many of the remaining counties have population densities below 50 per sq km, with several in the 30's.
I've driven across Bulgaria twice and I don't remember going through a single town. Stayed in Lom once, right on the Romanian border. Was looking forward to Veliko Trnovo but the road skirted around it. Once I thought I was lost, when the road trickled down to a one lane wooden bridge, but ten miles more. back on at least pavement. Quietest peaceful country, hours of cuckoos and cowbells. In those days, couple trucks an hour, no cars.
Yes, Bulgaria is like that outside of cities. The problem is that no one or few people are living there so there are these "gang"-like groups of Roma people who go and pillage what's left over. Especially in the poorest NorthWest region but increasingly everywhere. Heck, even some cities like Pazardzik and Ruse are increasingly less Bulgarian and more Roma.
They even beat old people and there were some incidents of rapes of old grannies, imagine that! It might look peaceful and quiet, but it's really not. Oh and if you shoot a person who got into your property to steal something, you're going to jail.
Anyway, there are also some almost empty areas in Southern Poland, Northern and Eastern Slovakia and Western Ukraine.
As already said Bulgaria and Romania have vast almost empty areas. Same for the Baltic states, Sweden, Norway and Finland where most people live in the capitals and large cities in the south and the interior parts of Greece and Portugal. But I'd like to mention Austria. Due to the Alps there are vast (but hilly) areas with only a few people: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._-_Austria.png
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