EU Population Decreased for the First Time This Century
For the first time since the beginning of this century, the population in the European Union has decreased in 2020. The population shrank from approximately 447.3 million to 447.0 million.
According to the European Statistical Office, the break-in annual population growth is partly due to the corona pandemic.
As a result, the overall death rate in the EU was higher than normal, but also fewer migrants arrived. Between 2000 and 2020, the total population in the 27 countries increased by 4 percent from 429 to 447 million, largely due to migration. But last year, the population declined by 312,000 people, the statistics office said.
The European population continues to age. The number of 80-year-olds and older has almost doubled in the past twenty years, from 3.4 percent as a share of the total population in 2001 to 5.9 percent in 2020.
The age at which women become mothers for the first time continues to rise to well over 29 years. And since the turn of this millennium, the percentage of people over 40 who gave birth to their first child has doubled.
