Totale bevolking EU stijgt door immigratie, bevolkingsafname in zes lidstaten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's population increased last year by 2.3 million (0.5%) to a total of 457.2 million - but the increase was mainly due to the immigration of 1.9 million people.

Only 400,000 came from a natural increase while six countries - Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland - saw their populations shrink.

Published on Tuesday (25 October) by Eurostat, the EU's Statistical Office, the new figures also showed that the average fertility rate - child per woman - went up slightly in 2004.

It increased from 1.48 in 2003 to 1.50 in 2004, but no EU country reached the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.

The highest fertility rates were found in Ireland (1.99), followed by France (1.90), Finland (1.80) and Denmark (1.78).

The lowest fertility rates were found in Slovenia (1.22), followed by the Czech Republic and Poland (both 1.23), Latvia (1.24) and Slovakia (1.25).

In other parts of the world fertility rates are higher. The US recorded birth rates of (2.07), Turkey (2.20) and India (2.85).

A growing number, now nearly one third (31.6%) of births in the EU, took place outside marriage, ranging from a high of 55.4 percent of births in Sweden, to a low of just 3.3 percent in Cyprus.