(click to enlarge) The terrific map above comes from a German government agency known in suitably lengthy Teutonic fashion as the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (but mercifully shortened as the BBSR in its native language). For the first time, explains the BBSR, researchers have analyzed population trends throughout Europe—43 countries in all—down to a very granular geographic segment known bureacratically as the "local administrative unit, level 2," or LAU-2 for short. The size and nature of the LAU-2 varies from country to country.