Brussels, 01/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - According to the latest report on demographics, published on Friday 1st April 2011 by the EU's statistical office Eurostat, (Eurostat), fertility has risen in the EU since 2003 due partly to the large number of immigrants, as did life expectancy (see EUROPE 10349).
Fertility. A positive change outlined in the report is the slow rise in the fertility rate in Europe. After a sharp drop between 1980 and the early years of 2000, fertility has been rising in the EU27 since 2003, when it stood at 1.47 children per woman, reaching 1.60 children per woman in 2008. The Commission points out that populations only replace themselves when the fertility rate reaches 2.1 children per woman on average. Modern family policies have improved the employment of women, explains the report, by making it easier to reconcile work and family life. The report draws a positive correlation between the number of women in the workplace and higher fertility rates.
Eurostat points out that from 2003 to 2008, fertility increased in all EU member states apart from Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal. The greatest increases were seen in Bulgaria (from 1.23 children per woman in 2003 to 1.57 in 2009), Slovenia (from 1.20 to 1.53), the Czech Republic (from 1.18 to 1.49) and Lithuania (from 1.26 to 1.55). In 2009, the greatest fertility rates were in Ireland (2.07 children per woman), France (2.00), the UK (1.96 in 2008) and Sweden (1.94). The lowest fertility rates are in Latvia (1.31), Hungary and Portugal (both 1.32) and Germany (1.36).
Life expectancy. Over the past 50 years, life expectancy at birth rose by around 10 years in the EU27, both for men (to 76.4 in 2008) and for women (82.4 in 2008). In 2009, the highest life expectancy in the EU for women was in France (85.1), Spain (84.9), Italy (84.5 in 2008) and Cyprus (83.6). For men, the highest life expectancy is in Sweden (79.4), Italy (79.1 in 2008) and Spain and the Netherlands (both 78.7). The Commission points out that demographics reflect geography because the population of Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania is falling rapidly as more people die than are born and as young people are leaving the country. It adds that the population is ageing slowly in Central Europe at the moment but will very quickly speed up from 2030 to 2040, when Slovakia and other Central European countries are expected to have the highest proportion of elderly people in the EU27.
Immigration. Most of the population growth in the EU in recent years has been caused by the arrival of immigrants. From 2004 to 2008, between 3 million and 4 million immigrants from outside the EU arrived in Europe each year. In 2010, some 32.4 million foreigners were living in the EU (some 6.5% of the total population), including 12.3 Europeans living in a different member state than the one for which they have a passport. In 2010, the countries with the highest number of foreigners were Germany (7.1 million), Spain (5.7 million), the United Kingdom (4.4 million), Italy (4.2 million) and France (3.8 million). For further information, see: http: //ec.europa.eu/eurostat or http: //ec.europa.eu/social (G. B./transl.fl)