Europe & the Middle East

An introduction 

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface. Of Europe's 48 countries, Russia is the largest by both area and population, while the Vatican is the smallest. Europe is the third most populous continent after Asia and Africa with a population of 710,000,000 or about 11% of the world's population.

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth. As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth between its 48 countries. The richer states tend to be in the West, some of the Eastern economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. 27 of the 48 European countries belong to the European Union, an intergovernmental body which comprises the largest single economic area in the world.

The Order of St John traces its origins back almost 900 years within Europe and the Middle East. St John is currently working in nine countries across the region and is providing a huge variety of services and support to communities. Click on country pages to find out more about St John activities across the region.