United Nations certified last week that the planet has more than for the first time 8 billion inhabitants. All continents except old Europe are increasing. The world population has an average age of just over 30 years, while Europeans are around 44 years old. Europe is older, aging twice as fast, and is the only continent to do so depends on immigration so as not to lose population. The Old Continent became the Old Continent Without measures to boost birth rates, the trend will change.
While the world population was 1990, 66% of today’s (from 5,280 to 8,000 million), in Europe it was 85% (from 382 million to 446 million). The European population of the countries that now make up the European Union was 7.23% of the world population in 1990 and is now 5.5%.
The Fertility rate falls in countries with a lot or almost no help for children, and in countries that are very liberal or very restrictive when it comes to abortion. In countries where young people leave their parents’ home at the age of 25 or 35. This doesn’t seem to change a phenomenon Politicians are unable to take tough action.
In an interview with French broadcaster LCI, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs said: Josep Borrell, said that “Europe’s demographic winter will only be met by contributions from the rest of the world.”Whether we like it or not”Borrell said, ‘It’s a fact.'” Borrell said in that interview that there are societies “that prefer aging to mixing, like Japan and some European countries,” and that others prefer a certain level of immigration.
Western Europe’s population is only growing slightly Thanks to immigration because the natural growth (positive or negative balance from deducting deaths and births) is negative. But the center and the east of the European Union are losing population. The 27 countries of the European Union are in the top 43 places worldwide Middle Ages population. Not counting the Principality of Monaco, Japan is the oldest country in the world with an average of 48.6 years and Germany is in second place with 47.8 years. Spain ranks thirteenth with an average age of 43.9 years.
Spain is aging slightly faster than its surroundings. The aging of Spain’s population accelerated rapidly as living standards began to rise and approach European standards. In 1950 The average age of Spaniards was 27.5 years and in 1980 30.4 years. They have barely aged 2.9 years in 30 years. In the 1980s it took the same amount of time as in the previous three years, 2.9 years, to reach 33.4. In the 1990s there was an even bigger jump from 4.2 years to 37.6 years.
In the first decade of this 21st century, aging was 2.4 years, and in the second decade there was another jump, this time by 4.5 years. Just the arrival of an important one Migration stream In the early 2000s, this aging slowed, spiking again as immigration stagnated after the explosion of the Real estate bubble and the Financial crisis between 2008 and 2012. If the INE This decade, Spaniards will age 4.7 years and in the next three years, they will age 52.6 years.
He Aging Europe It’s practically as spectacular. Data from Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical office, speaks of a Europe in which wrinkles and gray hair are becoming increasingly visible. In the last 20 years the population of the European Union aged by 5.5 years and reached 43.9 years. During the same period, the Spanish population aged 6.9 years.
The oldest region in Europe is the German region of Chemnitz, which is already over 52 years old on average. In Italian Liguria, they are almost 51.5 years and in the German city of Saxony-Anhalt, they are over 51.2 years. All about the oldest Spanish region, Castilla y León, which is 49.2 years old. The three younger European regions are outside the European continent. The French Mayotte (17.7 years) and Guyana (26.1 years) as well as the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla (34.4 years).
We have few children
The Fertility rate of European women has stagnated for decades. From 1.43 births per woman in 2001, it rose slightly until it reached 1.57 births in 2008 and began to decline again to 1.51 in 2013. Since then it has risen and fallen by a few tenths still just over 1.50. Experts assure that to maintain the same number of inhabitants without immigration or emigration, a birth rate of 2.1 is necessary. None of the 27 member states of the European Union reached 1.90. Some don’t even reach 1.50. Spain and Italy do not reach 1.30.
We die older
Life expectancy for Europeans in 1960 was 67.3 years for men and 73.0 years for women. Today it is 77.5 years for men and 83.2 years for women. A decade has been gained in 60 years.
The proportion of the population by age group shows accelerated aging over the last 10 years. While in 2011 17.8% of Europeans were over 65 years old, in 2021 this figure will already be 20.8%. During this decade, the proportion of the population up to 14 years of age fell from 15.4% to 15.1% and the proportion of the population between 15 and 64 years of age fell from 66.9% to 64.1%.
Thanks to immigration, the population decline is limited
Immigration is now the only thing keeping an aging continent alive with fewer and fewer children. In 2010 they were born in the 27 countries that now make up the EU 4.6 million children. In 2021 there were 4.06 million, almost 12% less.
While the influx of immigrants fluctuated depending on economic conditions and crises (0.23% increase in the European population through immigration in 1992, 0.07% in 2001, 0.34% in 2013), Natural growth decreased in the early 90s. In 1990 the net balance between births and deaths increased the population by 0.18%, but in 1995 it was barely 0.02%. It stagnated for two decades and fell sharply again in the middle of the last decade. In 2021, the balance between births and deaths would have resulted in a population loss of 0.28%. Immigration did this Loss would be reduced up to 0.04%.
The East is empty
The East of Europe It is proof of the necessity of immigration if we want to at least maintain the number of inhabitants. With Birth rates similar to those in the West (via Spain or Italy). Population losses They are huge because they hardly have any immigrants and they cause emigration to the West. If Romanians, Poles, Bulgarians, or Balts had not emigrated to the West, their countries would lose less population, but they would lose.
The data is overwhelming. The Romanian population was 23.2 million in 1990 and today it is 19.1 million. In Hungary, there were 10.3 million and today there are 9.7. The Bulgarian rose from 8.7 to 6.8 million Loss of more than 25% in just over 30 years.
The data for the three Baltic republics is even worse. Lithuania rose from 3.7 million in 1990 to 2.7 million (-27%) at the beginning of this year. Latvia from 2.6 to 1.8 million (-30%) and Estonia from 1.5 to 1.3 million. Estonia is the only country in the region that appears to have stopped this exodus.
The databases of Eurostat show that this immigration from East to West began in 1990 with the fall of communist regimes and increased from 2004 (when ten countries in the region joined the European Union).
These populations make up those of the countries of Western Europe. The Irish population grew by 40% between 1990 and 2019, the Spanish population by 19.6%, the Swedish population by 17.9%, the Austrian population by 16.6%, the Belgian population by 15.8%, the French population population by 15.2%. %, the Dutch 14.5%, the Danes 12.7%, and the Finns 10.9%. A large proportion of these immigrants are Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians or Balts.
While the east is emptying and the west is growing, the middle of the continent is stagnating. In 30 years, Germany and Italy have increased their populations by 6%, Slovenia and the Czech Republic by 5.5%, Slovakia by 3.2% and Greece by 1.9%. All thanks to immigrants, because none of the 27 member states of the European Union manage to maintain their population through natural growth.
