England , square miles.. 50,346 population 67 million
Ohio, square miles..44,825 population... 11.73 million
New York State, square miles.. 54,556 population... 19.4 million
Belgium, square miles... 11,849 population... 11.46 million
Maine, square miles.. 35,385 population... 1.33 million
I cannot speak for all of Europe, but where I lived in Europe, "country living" was virtually non-existent, small town or hamlet, was about as far as they would go. For the most part, small farmers lived in little villages, and went out to their fields daily.
To my understanding, one could live in the country , but they were required to make use of municipal utilities.. gas, water, electric and sewage. Try living just 2-3 miles from town, and paying for the installation of all those utilities.
You can google earth and see that Europe is covered with small village clusters, between cities. ..But perhaps now, the larger, consolidated farms have special allowances, so far as utilities etc. are concerned, so they can be involved in "country living".