Population Change in Europe

A tale of growing dwarfs and shrinking giants.

The political and economical changes of the recent years in Europe have lead to a large migration movement. The population shifts no longer occur mostly within a country – rural exodus – but also more and more between countries. In general western Europe is showing population growth while most parts of eastern Europe lose population. But the changes are varying greatly. Turkey (+14%) and Spain (+13%) are amongst the winners, nearly all CEE countries lose, some of them to a dramatic extent like Moldova (-13%) or Ukraine (-7%).

In western Europe all southern countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey) and the “Immigration-countries” the United Kingdom and Switzerland are winning. In eastern Europe mostly the economically under-developed countries had to put up with sometimes large emigration losses.

Some regions in Moldova, Ukraine or Bulgaria are now missing large parts of the productive age group between 25 and 50 or have lost these completely.