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.