Eurostat data showed that the EU population will decline again in 2021 from 447 million people on 1 January 2021 to 446.8 people on 1 January 2022.
Notably, negative natural change (more deaths than births) exceeds net positive migration for the second consecutive year, likely due to the impact of the pandemic.
In 2020, 531,000 more people died in the European Union than in 2019, compared to 113,000 more deaths in 2021 than in 2020.
The population of the European Union has grown from 354.5 million in 1960 to 446.8 million as of January 1, 2022, an increase of 92.3 million. Population growth rates have gradually slowed down in recent decades: for example, the population of the European Union increased by an average of about 0.7 million people per year during the period 2005–2022, compared to an average increase of about 3.0 million people per year. during the 1960s.
The population of individual EU member states as of 1 January 2022 ranged from 0.5 million in Malta to 83.2 million in Germany. On January 1, 2022, Germany, France and Italy together accounted for nearly half (47%) of the total EU population.
While the total population of the EU has been declining for the second year in a row, no member state has recorded a decline in population. A total of 10 countries recorded population declines between January 1, 2021 and 2022, with the largest decline recorded in Italy (253,100 people) and the smallest in Slovenia (1,800 people). Growth was observed in another 17 countries, the largest in France (185900) and the smallest in Estonia (1700).
Source: Eurostat