Eurostat: The number of deaths exceeds births in European Union

On 1 January 2016, the population of the European Union (EU) was estimated at 510.1 million, compared with 508.3 million on 1 January 2015. During the year 2015, almost 5.1 million babies were born in the EU, while more than 5.2 million persons died, meaning that the EU recorded for the first time ever a negative natural change of its population. The remainder of the change (positive) is driven mainly by net migration.

The most populated EU Member States continue to be Germany (82.2 million residents), France (66.7 million), the United Kingdom (65.3 million) and Italy (60.7 million). Together, they are home to more than half of the EU population.

These figures are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, just before the World Population Day (11 July). Some other interesting facts and an infographic about the EU population are also published on the Eurostat website.

Click here to read the whole article and see detailed infographics.

Source: Eurostat