Romania, among EU Member States with largest population decreases in 2018 – Eurostat

Romania is one of the EU Member States that recorded the largest population decreases in 2018, a year in which the population of the entire EU increased by 1.1 million people (+2.1‰), according to data released by the European statistical office Eurostat.

During 2018, the population increased in eighteen EU Member States and decreased in ten, Eurostat said. The largest population increase was observed in Malta (+36.8 per 1 000 residents), followed by Luxembourg (+19.6‰), Ireland (+15.2‰), Cyprus (+13.4‰), and Sweden (+10.8‰). On the other hand, the largest population decreases were recorded in Latvia (-7.5‰), Bulgaria and Croatia (both -7.1‰), Romania (-6.6‰), and Lithuania (-5.3‰).

Romania also had one of the highest death rates last year, of 13.5‰. Only Bulgaria (15.4‰), Latvia (15.0‰) and Lithuania (14.1‰) had higher rates. At EU level, 5.3 million deaths were registered in in 2018, almost 46 000 more than the previous year.

“Ireland (with a natural change of its population of +6.1‰) remained in 2018 the Member State where births most outnumbered deaths, ahead of Cyprus (+4.1‰), Luxembourg (+3.2‰), Sweden (+2.3‰), France (+2.2‰), the United Kingdom (+1.7‰) and Malta (+1.6‰). In contrast, among the fifteen EU Member States which registered a negative natural change in 2018, deaths outnumbered births the most in Bulgaria (-6.6‰), followed by Latvia (-4.9‰), Lithuania (-4.1‰), Croatia, Hungary and Romania (all -3.9‰),” the Eurostat report reads.

Romania's National Statistics Institute (INS) said on July 11 that the country had a resident population of 19.53 million inhabitants at January 1, 2018, and 9.97 million (51.1% of the total) were women.

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