Europe’s Massive Population Growth In 2019 Driven By Migration
Population in Europe has risen significantly in 2019 due to mass migration. Data released by the European Union statistics agency Eurostat showed that the population within Europe went up from 512.4 million to 513.5 million in 2018.
For the second consecutive year, the population of the continent increased despite having higher death rates than birth rates.
French daily Le Figaro reported that France has a higher birthrate than EU with more births originating from migrant families.
Institut national d’études démographiques (INED) reported that the native French birthrate is estimated at 1.8 children per woman, much higher than the 1.59 average across the EU, but the birthrate for migrants is 2.6 children per woman.
Data gathered from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE) also revealed that 18.8 per cent of the births in France in 2017 are to migrants.
“If France is at the forefront of fertility rates in Europe, it does not come so much from immigration as the high fertility of natives,” the study claims, with native French defined as anyone born in the country.
Among the EU countries, Ireland maintains the highest birthrates with 12.5 births per thousand inhabitants, while Italy, with 7.3 births per thousand inhabitants, ranked among the lowest in Europe.
Just like France, the number of births in Ireland is higher than the European average with migrant births notably higher than native births.
In 2018, a study on population trend conducted by the researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Vienna Wittgenstein Center showed that almost all population growth in Western Europe was driven by migration.
“Migration movements have become the driving force behind growth and decline of the population of Europe,” ÖAW demographer Tomas Sobotka said.
The research also found that in Germany and Italy population growth can be attributed to mass migration as there was a disparity between birth rates and replacement rates.
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