July 11 was established as World Population Day in 1990 to raise public awareness of the programs of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a UN agency that promotes the right of every man, woman and child to health and equal opportunities. UNFPA designs and implements policies and programs on poverty reduction, contraception, safe pregnancy, AIDS prevention and response, and gender equality.

Eurostat data On 1 January 2020, the population of the European Union (EU) with 27 Member States reached 447.7 million, down 12.8% compared to 513.5 million in 28 Member States on 1 January 2019. This decrease is mainly due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (on 1 February 2020), which saw the EU population decrease by 13%. The overall population change in the EU27 was positive with 0.9 million more inhabitants in 2019, due to net migration. Natural population change in the EU has been negative since 2012, with more deaths than births in the EU (4.7 million deaths and 4.2 million births in 2019), according to figures released today by Eurostat, the statistics service of the European Union, on the occasion of World Population Day (July 11).

Among EU member states, Germany has the largest population (83.2 million inhabitants) representing 18.6% of the total EU population on 1 January 2020, followed by France (67.1 million or 15.0 %), Italy (60.2 million or 13.5%), Spain (47.3 million or 10.6%) and Poland (38.0 million or 8.5%). Fourteen Member States have a share between 1% and 5% of the EU population, while eight have a share below 1%.

The population of Greece was 10,724,600 in 2019 and 10,709,700 in 2020, (decrease -1.4‰), at 2.4% of the EU total. The population of Cyprus was 875,900 in 2019 and 888,000 in 2020, ( an increase of 13.7‰), to 0.2% of the EU total. Population increased in eighteen EU member states and decreased in nine. Malta recorded by far the highest population growth (+ 41.7 ‰), followed by Luxembourg (+ 19.7 ‰), Cyprus (+ 13.7 ‰), Ireland (+ 12.1 ‰) and Sweden (+ 9.5 ‰). The largest population declines were recorded in Bulgaria (-7.0 ‰), Latvia (-6.4 ‰), Romania (-5.0 ‰), Croatia (-4.4 ‰) and Italy (-1 .9 ‰).

In addition, 4.2 million babies were born in the EU in 2019, 2.2% less than the previous year. The highest birth rates in 2019 were recorded in Ireland (12.1 per 1,000 inhabitants), France (11.2 ‰), Sweden (11.1 ‰), Cyprus (10.9 ‰) and Greece (10.6 ‰). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest birth rates were recorded in Italy (7.0 ‰), Spain (7.6 ‰), Greece (7.8 ‰), Finland (8.3 ‰) and Portugal ( 8.4 ‰). At EU level, the birth rate was 9.3 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Another 4.7 million deaths were recorded in the EU in 2019, 0.9% less than the previous year. The lowest crude death rate was recorded in Ireland (6.3 per 1,000 inhabitants). Low rates were also recorded in Cyprus (6.8 ‰), Luxembourg (6.9 ‰), Malta (7.3 ‰) and Sweden (8.6 ‰). In contrast, the highest death rate was recorded in Bulgaria (15.5 ‰), followed by Latvia (14.5 ‰), Lithuania (13.7 ‰), Romania (13.4 ‰) and Hungary (13, 3 ‰). At EU level, the crude death rate was 10.4 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Consequently, Ireland (with a natural change of its population + 5.8 ‰) remained in 2019 the Member State in which most were born, followed by Cyprus (+ 4.1 ‰), Luxembourg (+ 3.1 ‰ ), Sweden (+ 2.5 ‰) and France (+ 2.1 ‰).

Among the EU member states that recorded a negative natural change in 2019, deaths exceeded births the most in Bulgaria (-6.7‰), followed by Latvia (-4.7‰), Lithuania, Greece and Croatia (from -3.9), Hungary and Romania (from -3.8) and Italy (-3.6h). At EU level, eleven Member States recorded positive physical change and sixteen Member States recorded negative physical change in 2019.

 

 

Source: https://www.sansimera.gr/worldays/47