i'm just closing down tabs.

in all fairness, the united states is not the size of any country in europe. italy, the uk and france each have around 60 million people, which is about the size of the great lakes megaregion, at it's broadest extent (including the gta). spain has about 50 million people, which is roughly equivalent to the bos-wash corridor, and germany has about 80 million which is more than any megaregion in the country, except for the entire eastern seaboard.

but, the european union as a whole has twice the population of the united states, almost. so, getting a good comparison means cutting a piece out of it.

adding up continental western europe is:

portugal -  10
spain - 47
france - 67
italy - 60
germany - 83
switzerland- 9
belgium- 11
netherlands- 17
luxembourg- 1
austria- 9
czechia- 11
==========
325

this is essentially the western empire, and excludes the british isles & scandinavia, which kind of make up their own region, as distinct from the area governed by western emperors, popes, carolingians and napoleonic pretenders. together, the brits & swedes have historically represented the opposition to roman hegemony in the west, wherever it's been localized (more frequently in paris than rome, over the last several millennia).

the population of the british isles & scandinavia, together, make up about 93 million people. there are parts of eastern europe that could historically be considered a part of scandinavia, but are better understood as satellite states of russia, in a pan-slavic kind of union, as a successor to the eastern empire. the baltic states are the ones in between.

but, what are the stats in this block of continental western europe that really is it's own thing?

(numbers from the wiki page, as of the date of this post - this is never up to date, take it as a snapshot, i'm trying to make a point)

portugal - 4268 cases / 76 deaths
spain - 56,197 / 4,145
france - 29,155 / 1,696
italy - 80,589 / 8,215
germany - 47,373 /285
switzerland- 12,311 / 207
belgium-  7,284 / 289
netherlands- 8,603 / 546
luxembourg- 1,453/ 9
austria- 6,001 / 58
czechia- 2062 / 9
=============
255296 cases & 15535 deaths.

& this is a little behind.

so, the united states has a ways to go before it catches up, still.