England -- Europe's most crowded country, after Malta

LONDON (AFP) - England is the most densely populated major country in the European Union, overtaking the Netherlands, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Tuesday.
In a written answer to parliament, the ONS said said the projected population density of England in 2008 was 395 persons per square kilometre.
The most recent United Nations figures available for the Netherlands are from 2005, when it had 393 people per square kilometre. Since then its population is believed to have remained steady or fallen slightly.
Tiny island nation Malta is the most densely populated of the 27 EU member states, with 1,274 people per square kilometre.
Britain has undergone a recent surge in immigration, with critics saying the system is in chaos.
Immigration has become a hot topic for discussion, with the latest figures likely to fuel that debate.
The ONS said the projected population density of the whole of the UK in 2008 was 253 persons per square kilometre -- which would place it fourth in the EU behind Malta, the Netherlands and Belgium -- with Scotland at 66 per square kilometre, Wales at 144 and Northern Ireland at 131.
The UK has seen a surge in immigration over the last 10 years, with the resident population swelling to 60,975,000 in mid-2007. Many immigrants have settled in London and the southeast.
The ONS estimates that England's population density will rise to 464 people per square kilometre by 2031.
If recently observed trends in fertility, mortality and migration were to continue, the UK population was likely to reach 71 million by 2031, a rise "attributable to a net inward flow of migrants", according to National Statistician Karen Dunnell.
Last week an all-party group of MPs, led by Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, called for a "balanced" approach to immigration, where the numbers allowed to settle in the country equalled those leaving.
"This is a milestone in the immigration debate as immigration accounts for 70 percent of our population growth," the pair said in response to the fresh figures.
"The government's points-based system places no limit on the number of people allowed to settle in the UK. If ever there was a case for balanced migration, it is now."

"To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life"