Editing List of rivers of Europe (section)

==Scope==
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}

The [[Boundaries between the continents of Earth#Europe and Asia|border of Europe and Asia]] is here defined as from the [[Kara Sea]], along the [[Ural Mountains]] and [[Ural River]] to the [[Caspian Sea]]. While the crest of the [[Caucasus Mountains]] is the geographical border with Asia in the south, [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], and to a lesser extent [[Armenia]] and [[Azerbaijan]], are politically and culturally often associated with Europe; rivers in these countries are therefore included.

The list is at the outset limited to those rivers that are at least 250&nbsp;km long from the most distant source, have a [[drainage basin]] (catchment area, watershed) of at least {{cvt|10000|km2|sqmi}}, or have a mean discharge (volume, flow) of at least {{cvt|150|m3/s|cuft/s}}. Also included are a number of rivers (currently 47) that do not meet these criteria, but are very well known and/or nearly make the mark. Examples of these are the [[Arno]], [[Ruhr (river)|Ruhr]], [[Saar (river)|Saar]], and [[River Clyde|Clyde]]. See the lists of rivers for individual countries linked to at the bottom of the page for smaller rivers.

The rivers are ordered from those flowing to the extreme northeast into the Arctic Ocean, following the coastline anticlockwise all the way to the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. Iceland and the British Islands are included via virtual connections with northern Norway and across the [[Strait of Dover]] and the [[North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland)|North Channel]], respectively. Finally, rivers draining into the Caspian Sea are listed from Azerbaijan to the Ural River.

The table can be sorted by each column. The first three columns give a ranking for (maximum) length, area and volume of those rivers flowing into the sea or an [[endorheic]] lake down to the cut-off values. No ranking of tributaries is attempted, as the concept is too contentious; for example, hydrologically the middle and upper Volga could be considered a tributary of the [[Kama River|Kama]], in which case it would be the fifth or sixth longest river in Europe. Instead it does not appear in the table at all.

The commercial and geopolitical importance of rivers is not ranked here. As a transportation artery, a river may unite a region commercially and economically, but major rivers, as barriers to travel, may also form political boundaries between states. The [[Danube]], the second longest river in Europe, is notable for flowing through or past ten countries; the Rhine through or past six. The [[Volga]], the longest river in Europe, unites a huge region of European Russia; eleven of the twenty largest cities in Russia lie on its banks. The Loire and the Po unite important regions within France and Italy respectively. The most important rivers in Europe include [[Rhone]], [[Elbe]], [[Oder (river)|Oder]], [[Tagus]], [[Thames]], [[Don (river)|Don]] and [[Dnieper]], among others.{{explain|date=August 2019}}