More deaths than births, but EU population still grows thanks to migration

Brussels—Europe’s natural population balance is negative; there are more deaths than births, but the EU’s population is increasing. In 2023, it rose from 447.6 million people to 449.2. The arrival of migrant people is reversing the population decline of the 27 for the second year in a row.

According to the analysis published by the EU Statistical Office, the observed population growth can be primarily attributed to increased migration movements after pandemic restrictions and the influx of displaced persons from Ukraine who received temporary protection status in EU countries.

If a longer time frame is considered, the population of the EU has grown from 354.5 million in 1960 to 449.2 million in early 2024, an increase of 94.7 million people. However, the growth rate has gradually slowed in recent decades: the population of the EU has increased by an average of about 0.6 million people per year over the period 2015-2024, while in the population boom years, the average growth rate was 2.9 million people per year.

After the two years of the pandemic crisis, in which the EU population declined by about half a million people in 2020 and nearly 0.3 million in 2021, it resumed its—albeit slow—growth. Italy is an exception: during 2023, Italy’s population decreased by about 8 thousand people, from 58.997 million to 58.989. But it is not the only one: among the 27, population decline also affects Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.