In Numbers: How the populations of European countries have changed
The year 2024 was the fourth consecutive year of population growth in the EU, after a drop recorded during the pandemic.
The increase is largely due to net migration (the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving) rather than natural change (the difference between births and deaths).
Only six EU countries – France and Sweden, together with Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta – recorded more births than deaths, in addition to positive net migration.
Effects of migration
Historically, the difference between births and deaths in the EU was positive – yet slowing – until 2011. Since 2012, more deaths than births were recorded but the total EU population has kept increasing due to positive net migration. Only during the Covid-19 pandemic was the negative natural change not compensated by migration,
Eurostat
says.
In 2024, deaths (4.82 million) outnumbered births (3.56 million), resulting in a negative natural change of 1.3 million people. On the other hand, positive net migration was 2.3 million, lower than the almost 3 million of 2022. These factors together made up for a population increase of 1,070,702.
On a country level, 19 EU member states saw their population growing while eight saw a decline.
The highest growth rates compared to the total population were recorded in Malta (the smallest EU country by population, at 0.6 million), Portugal and Ireland.
Denmark was the only EU country with zero natural change and its population was stable at around 5.9 million.
Advertisement
Except for Latvia, where people emigrating keep outnumbering those immigrating, all EU countries had positive net migration in 2024.
In 13 EU countries (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland), this was the reason for population growth.
Largest countries
Germany, France and Italy are the largest EU countries by population (19 percent, 15 percent and 13 percent respectively, and comprise almost half of all EU residents.
In 2024, Germany had 83.5 million inhabitants compared to 83.4 in 2023, France 68.6 million compared to 68.4 the previous year, and Italy 59.7 million people, a slight decrease over 2023.
Spain follows with 49 million people, compared to 48.6 in 2023.
In Sweden, the total population reached 10.5 million, and Austria 9.1 million, both representing a slight increase compared to 2023.
Norway followed a similar trend, at 5.5 million, and Switzerland's population reached 9 million people, compared to 8.9 in 2023.
Advertisement
Countries losing population
In 2024, the population declined in eight EU countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), as the negative natural change was not offset by immigration. The largest declines were recorded in Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Estonia.
Latvia was the only country with both negative natural change and negative net migration.
Future trend
The EU population grew by about 0.9 million each year between 2005 and 2024, compared to 3 million per year during the 1960s.
In 1960, the population of the current EU countries was 354.5 million.
In the future, due to the ageing population, the number of deaths is expected to further increase, and if fertility rates remain at current levels, the negative natural change could
continue
.
This is in line with a global trend with a growing number of older adults and fewer under 25, according to an analysis by the
Pew Research Centre
. This also shows that Europe's median age is 43, making it the oldest region in the world.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
20 minutes ago
- Local France
US tariff tussles stuff of nightmares for Bordeaux winemakers
In southwestern France, around the Bordeaux region's famed vineyards, months of talk on what US President Donald Trump will decide on tariffs have been the stuff of nightmares for producers as they look on helplessly. The United States is by far the top export market for Bordeaux's wine, accounting for €400 million worth of annual sales - or about 20 percent of the total. China lags behind with €300 million ahead of the United Kingdom with €200 million. Sunday's announcement of a trade deal between the United States and the European Union did not clear up what tariffs European wine and spirits producers will face in the United States. Advertisement While Trump said European exports face 15 percent tariffs across the board, both sides said there would be carve-outs for certain sectors. EU head Ursula Von der Leyen said the bloc still hoped to secure further so-called "zero-for-zero" agreements, notably for alcohol, which she hoped to be "sorted out" in the coming days. Philippe Tapie, chairman of regional traders' union Bordeaux Negoce, which represents more than 90 percent of the wine trade in the Bordeaux area, is worried by the uncertainty. "One day, it is white, the next it is black - the US administration can change its mind from one day to the next and we have no visibility," he told AFP. In mid-March, Trump had threatened Brussels with 200 percent tariffs on alcohol in response to a proposed EU tax on US bourbon. Then in April he brandished a new threat of 20 percent across the board on EU products, a threat ultimately suspended. Since then, the level first held at ten percent but, in late May, the US leader threatened to revert to 50 percent before pivoting to 30 percent starting August 1st, the deadline for the negotiations with the EU that led to a preliminary accord after Trump and Von der Leyen met in Scotland on Sunday. "At 10 percent or 15 percent, we'll find solutions. At 30 percent, no. End of story," Tapie warned just ahead of the announcement as he criticised a "totally unpredictable American administration". To export wine, "there's a minimum of 30 days by boat. If you go to California, it's 60 days. We can't think in terms of weeks," says Tapie, who says he has "never been confronted with such a situation" in 30 years of business. Advertisement Twins Bordeaux, one of Bordeaux's leading wine merchants, also laments the tariffs' impact. "The American market represents about a third of our turnover, or around €30 million," explains Sebastien Moses, co-director and co-owner of Twins, which usually ships upwards of a million bottles a year to the United States. Since January, "our turnover must have fallen by 50 percent compared to last year," he says. "So far, we've managed to save the situation, because as soon as Donald Trump was elected we anticipated this and sent as much stock as possible to the US," explains Moses, though longer term he says this is not a "stable" strategy. As an attempted work around Twins Bordeaux even shipped cases of around 10,000 bottles by air in March. "But only very expensive wines, at no less than €150-€200 per bottle, because by air it's at least two and a half times the price of shipping by sea," he said. For Bordeaux wine merchant Bouey, the US market represents less than 10 percent of its exports. "We have long since undertaken a geographical expansion. Faced with the global chaos, commercial strategies can no longer be based on a single- or dual-country strategy," Jacques Bouey, its CEO, told AFP in April. The tariffs come with the industry already struggling with declining consumption that has led to overproduction and a collapse in bulk prices. By early 2023, a third of Bordeaux's approximately 5,000 wine growers admitted to being in difficulty. "We're starting to become world champions in terms of accumulating problems," complained Tapie.
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
Tariffs: EU hands Trump a political win to avoid trade chaos
Suddenly, Donald Trump leaned toward Ursula von der Leyen and extended his hand, praising, with his signature superlatives, "the biggest deal ever made." Up to that point, the European Commission president had remained still in her large green velvet chair, but she accepted the handshake. That gesture closed, on Sunday, July 27, dozens of hours of sometimes bewildering negotiations between the European and American delegations, culminating in the meeting held in the ballroom of the sprawling Turnberry golf resort, owned by Trump, on Scotland's west coast. The suspense lasted until the very last minute. At the start of the meeting, the Republican, claiming to be "not in a good mood," still estimated the odds of reaching a deal at 50%. The agreement was clinched just five days before the August 1 deadline he had previously set, after which European exports would have faced punitive tariffs of 30%. Faced with two evils, the 27 EU member states chose what they saw as the lesser: an unbalanced compromise favoring the US rather than risking a full-scale trade war with unpredictable consequences. The choice was of "stability over total unpredictability," European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic explained on a flight from Brussels to Glasgow. While German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the agreement without much enthusiasm, it was Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever who best summed up the mood among European leaders: "This is a moment of relief, but not of celebration." French Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad, meanwhile, recognized the deal would bring "temporary stability" but called it "unbalanced."
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Key takeaways from the EU-US trade deal
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen clinched an agreement Sunday with US President Donald Trump to avoid crippling tariffs from hitting the bloc, with both leaders hailing a 'good deal'. The stakes were high with a looming August 1 deadline and $1.9 trillion transatlantic trading relationship on the line. Many European businesses will breathe a sigh of relief after the leaders agreed the 27-country bloc will face a baseline levy of 15 percent instead of a threatened 30 percent – but the deal will not satisfy everyone. Here is what we know so far: What did EU, US agree on? Both sides confirmed there will be a 15-percent across-the-board rate on a majority of EU goods – the same level secured by Japan this month – with bilateral tariff exemptions on some products. The deal will bring relief for the bloc's auto sector, employing around 13 million people – and hit by Trump with 25-percent tariffs, on top of a pre-existing 2.5 percent. 'Obviously, it is good news for the car industry. So Germany will be happy. And all the EU members with auto supply chains, they go from 27.5 to 15 percent,' said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute For International Economics. A 15-percent levy will remain 'costly' for German automakers, 'but it is manageable', said trade geopolitics expert Elvire Fabry at the Jacques Delors Institute. While 15 percent is much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods – averaging 4.8 percent – it mirrors the status quo, with companies currently facing an additional flat rate of 10 percent imposed by Trump since April. The EU also committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States – split equally over three years – to replace Russian energy sources. And it will pour $600 billion more in additional investments in the United States. Trump said EU countries – which recently pledged to ramp up their defence spending within NATO – would be purchasing 'hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of military equipment'. Are there exemptions? Von der Leyen said the 15-percent rate applied across most sectors, including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals – a critical export for Ireland, which the bloc has sought to protect. Trump in April launched probes that could lead to significantly steeper tariffs on the two key sectors, warning this month he could slap 200-percent levies on drugs. Brussels and Washington agreed a bilateral tariff exemption for key goods including aircraft, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products and critical raw materials, von der Leyen said. The EU currently faces 50-percent tariffs on its steel exports to the United States, but von der Leyen said a compromise on the metal had been reached with Trump. 'Between us, tariffs will be cut and a quota system will be put in place,' she said. It is understood that European steel would be hit with 50-percent levies only after a certain amount of the metal arrived in the United States, but no details were initially provided on the mechanism. What happens next? The deal needs to be approved by EU member states, whose ambassadors will meet first thing Monday morning for a debrief from the European Commission. And there are still technical talks to come, since the agreement needs to be fully fleshed out. Von der Leyen described the deal as a 'framework' agreement. 'Details have to be sorted out, and that will happen over the next weeks,' she said. In particular, she said there has yet to be a final decision on alcohol, critical since France and The Netherlands have been pushing for carve-outs for wine and beer respectively. 'This is something which has to be sorted out in the next days,' von der Leyen said.
