Destination Europe, Destination the World. In the past twenty years, 2.5 million residents have left Romania, according to official data
Fotó: Haáz Vince
Romania has lost the most residents over the past 20 years among the EU member states according to the „Demography of Europe – 2025 edition” research by the Eurostat statistical office, which highlights many other noteworthy and, simultaneously, troubling findings. Romanian citizens make up the largest group of EU citizens living abroad in other EU member states, and Romania also saw the largest increase in median age in the EU.
2025. május 31., 20:042025. május 31., 20:04
As noted in the introduction to the interactive publication, the report on Europe’s population allows for the examination of EU- and country-level data and the comparison of multi-year trends. As such, Eurostat’s demographic data rank among the most popular European statistics and form a key element in many policy areas.
In terms of population structure, as of January 1, 2024, 449 million people live in the European Union (EU), representing a 0.4% increase from the 448 million registered on January 1, 2023. The most populous EU countries are:
Together, these five countries make up 66% of the EU’s population. At the other end of the demographic spectrum lies Malta (with 563,000 people, 0.1% of the EU’s population), Luxembourg (672,000, also 0.1%), and Cyprus (934,000, 0.2%).
The population increase of 1.6 million observed in 2023 is largely attributed to accelerated migration following the Covid-19 pandemic and the influx of displaced persons from Ukraine who received temporary protection status in EU countries due to the war with Russia, researchers note.
From January 1, 2004, to January 1, 2024 – a 20-year period – the EU's total population increased from 432.8 million to 449.2 million, a 4% growth. During this time, the population increased in 19 EU countries and decreased in 8. The largest relative increases were seen in Luxembourg (48%), Malta (41%), Ireland (33%), and Cyprus (29%). The most significant relative declines were recorded in Latvia (–18%), Bulgaria (–17%), Lithuania (–15%), and Romania (–11%).
Poland is a distant second (–1.6 million), followed by Bulgaria (–1.3 million). According to Eurostat, Hungary lost 532,000 residents during this time. The largest absolute increases were seen in France and Spain (both +6.1 million).
As of January 1, 2024, there were 229 million women and 220 million men in the EU. This means that for every 100 men, there were 104.4 women – 4.4% more women than men.
Between January 1, 2004, and January 1, 2024, the proportion of people aged 80 and older increased in every EU country. During the same period, the share of those aged 65 and over also grew in all EU countries. At the EU level, the increase was 5.2 percentage points – from 16.4% to 21.6%. At the same time, the share of those under 15 dropped from 16.2% to 14.6%. This decline was observed in nearly all EU member states.
Another way to analyze population aging in the EU is by looking at the median age – the age at which half the population is younger and half is older. The EU median age rose by 5.4 years, from 39.3 years in 2004 to 44.7 in 2024.
Among EU countries, the highest median age as of January 1, 2024, was in Italy (48.7 years), followed by Bulgaria and Portugal (47.1), and Greece (46.9 years). The lowest median ages are in: Ireland (39.4), Luxembourg (39.7), Malta (39.8), and Cyprus (40.6 years).
The smallest changes were in Sweden (1.1 years) and Luxembourg (1.8 years). On January 1, 2024, the median age was 43.1 years for men and 46.3 years for women.
In 2023, life expectancy at birth in the EU was estimated at 81.4 years. It was highest in Spain (84.0) and Italy (83.5), and lowest in Latvia (75.6) and Bulgaria (75.8). From 2003 to 2023, life expectancy in the EU increased by 3.7 years. Women live longer than men on average: in 2023, women in the EU had a life expectancy of 84.0 years at birth, while for men it was 78.7 – a difference of 5.3 years.
In 2023, the crude birth rate in the EU was 8.2 live births per 1000 people. Comparing 2023 to 2003, every EU country saw a decrease except Bulgaria. The crude death rate, or the number of deaths per 1000 people, was 10.8 in 2023. The highest rates were in Bulgaria (15.7 deaths per 1000 people), Latvia (14.9), and Hungary (13.7). In 2003, the EU’s crude death rate was 10.1.
At the same time, the EU’s total fertility rate in 2023 was 1.38 live births per woman – a decline from 1.44 in 2003, and well below the replacement level of 2.1, which is considered necessary for population stability. Among EU countries in 2023, Bulgaria had the highest total fertility rate (1.81 live births per woman), followed by France (1.66) and Hungary (1.55). The lowest rates were in Malta (1.06), Spain (1.12), and Lithuania (1.18).
The oldest first-time mothers lived in Italy (31.8 years), Ireland (31.6), and Spain (31.5). Meanwhile the youngest can be found in: Bulgaria (26.9), Romania (27.1), and Slovakia (27.3), according to the data.
In 2023, around 3.7 million babies were born in the EU, of which 6.1% had mothers aged 40 or older. Among EU countries, the highest proportion of such mothers was in Ireland, Spain, and Greece (11% of all live births), while the lowest was in Romania, Slovakia, and Lithuania (each 4%). The share of births from mothers aged 40+ in the EU more than doubled from 2.6% in 2003 to 6.1% in 2023.
EU citizens have the right to move freely and live in other EU countries. As of January 1, 2024,
followed by Italians and Poles. In many EU countries, the vast majority of immigrants do not hold the citizenship of their host country: in 2023, in 25 of the 27 EU countries, at least 60% of immigrants were non-citizens. The highest proportions were in Czechia (98%), Cyprus and Malta (both 95%). Meanwhile, in Romania, 67% of immigrants in 2023 had Romanian citizenship – the highest rate in the EU, followed by Slovakia (64%).
Romániát hagyta el a legtöbb lakos az elmúlt 20 évben az Unió tagállamai közül – derül ki az Eurostat statisztikai hivatal Európa népessége – 2025-ös kiadás című kutatásából, mely számos más érdekességre, ugyanakkor szomorú adatokra is rávilágít.
Iratkozzon fel hírlevelünkre, hogy elsőként értesüljön a hírekről!
I would like to share a personal story from 1986 that I have never told before. I had just finished my first year studying physics at university.
While Sunday’s first-round results of Romania’s presidential election were not entirely unexpected, the outcome delivered a political shock of historic proportions.
Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday at the age of 88, left behind an exceptional legacy. Papal Prelate József Marton spoke to Krónika about the Pope’s role in the history of the Catholic Church and his visit to Csíksomlyó.
It took Emil Boc a long time to recover from the punch in the face that shattered the smiling cityscape posing as the poster child of multiculturalism.
Monday night's match between the Cluj-Napoca Universitatea (“U”) and CFR football teams ended in a street fight.
Against the backdrop of a transforming world order following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, many may feel the ground falling out from under them – but few countries feel it as intensely as Romania.
Tamás Horváth, aged 18, from Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), has been included in the list of the best sports photographers in the world, after his work was selected for the longlist in the Sport Media Awards.
Romania's accession to the Schengen area of the European Union this year meant a two-way increase in traffic free from internal border controls: spa tourism in Hungary and shopping tourism in Romania increased in January.
The Ombudsman's Office, also known as the People's Advocate, receives many complaints from members of the Hungarian community in Romania and from the regions inhabited by Hungarians – but the vast majority of these do not concern minority rights.
The historic Baroque altarpiece is being restored and will be displayed once again in the Saint Michael Church in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár). The identity of the artist was discovered following the recently completed restoration.
Látogatottsági adatok
szóljon hozzá!