Europe's Population in 3D

3D Global Human Settlement is a WebGL visualization of Europe's population. The 3D model shows the population of Europe as peaks and troughs, where height represents population density.

On this map Istanbul has the highest peak, followed by Paris. This suggests that the city centers of both these cities are densely populated. Both Moscow and London are normally said to have a larger population than Paris. On this map they both have broader mountains than Paris, which suggests their populations are more evenly distributed rather than concentrated in the center, as Paris' population appears to be.

The data for the map comes from the European Commission's Global Human Settlement Layer, which derives from analysis of satellite imagery.