According to data published by Eurostat, the population of the European Union has reached 450 million.
Population growth is due to the fact that more and more people are coming into EU countries. At the same time, birth rates remain lower than death rates. This has been happening since 2012.
Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, migration has been rising. 2.3 million immigrants entered the EU last year. Many governments have introduced stricter border controls in an attempt to slow down immigration.
Since the EU was founded 70 years ago, the community has grown by almost 100 million people. In the 60s, the annual growth was about 3 million, much higher than it is today.
Germany is the most populous EU country with 83 million people, almost a fifth of the total population. Malta, Ireland and Luxembourg have the highest growth rates, while Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Estonia have declining populations.
In general, Europe is facing many population problems. Low birth rates are leading to a shortage of workers and as more and more people get older governments must spend more money on health care and pensions.
Words
- annual = yearly
- attempt = try
- birth rate = the number of babies born for every 1000 people in a country
- border = line between two countries
- community = organization
- data = information
- death rate = the number of people who have died for every 1000 people in a country
- declining = going down
- due to = because of
- face = to deal with
- found – founded = when something starts; the birth of an organization
- government = the people who rule a country
- growth = when something gets bigger
- health care = everything that you have in order to make people stay healthy – doctors, hospitals, nurses etc..
- immigrant = a person who goes to another country to live and work there
- migration = when many people go to other countries to live and work there
- most populous = with the most people
- pandemic = a disease that affects millions of people all over the world
- pension = the money people get from the government when they are old and don’t work any more
- publish = an official report that everyone can read it
- remain = stay
- shortage = not enough
- strict = here: to have very many checks and not let everyone into a country