Though there were more deaths than births across the European Union (EU), the population increased by 1.1 million in one year, to 512.6 million people. The increase was due to net migration, according to Eurostat. Population trends in EU countries aren’t at all consistent. While Malta, Luxembourg, and Sweden saw a large increases in population growth, Lithuania, Croatia, and Latvia saw their population shrink significantly. [...]
For countries at the bottom of the table, a lack of migrants is contributing to a population decrease. In Lithuania, Latvia, and Romania, an increase in net migration could help reverse population decline. And while the populations grew slightly in Poland and Slovakia, restrictive immigration policies have dampened the growth. The same is true for Slovenia, but the country was one of many to respond to the refugee crisis by building fences. [...]
There are, however, some European countries whose growth is not dependent on migration. In Ireland, France, and the Netherlands, population growth was down in 2016 because of natural increases rather than migration. And the 2018 data from Eurostat shows that across the EU, the highest crude birth rates, which measures the rate of birth to the population, in 2017 were recorded in Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. (The fertility rate measure the rate of birth to women in a reproductive age).
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