Highways play an important role in increasing people mobility and expanding the economy of the areas they connect. Trips taken via highways mean less time on the road and more time spent having fun, doing exciting activities or in the company of family and friends. Highways are also safer and easier to drive on. Not only people spend less time traveling, but also goods, thus they become cheaper and more available.
In the European Union, western countries have usually more kilometers of highway, but some eastern countries recently developed an impressive network, like Poland, Hungary or Croatia.
You might expect that Germany rules overall, but surprise, Spain has the longest network! In fact, building highways helped them raise their economy after Franco regime. Other countries also have increased their economy by constructing highways, see Slovenia who has the most km of highways per capita. On the other hand Romania lacks fast transportation but in the last decade they tripled their network.
Large nordic countries with relative small population density like Finland and Sweden have concentrated their highways in the southern regions, around the capitals while countries with small area but very populated like Belgium and Netherlands own a very dense highway network.
Having highways means also easier connections on land with your neighbours, something that is not so applicable for United Kingdom. Maybe that explains why they are in the bottom half in the density chart.
Total EU: 81,574 km
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