The EU population was estimated at 505.7 million on 1 January 2013. Compared with the same period in 2012, the population was at 504.6 million.
According to Eurostat, the EU population grew by 1.1 million in 2012, an annual rate of +2.2 per 1 000 inhabitants, due to a natural increase of 0.2 million (+0.4‰) and net migration of 0.9 million (+1.7‰).
In 2012, 5.2 million babies were born in the EU28. The crude birth rate was 10.4 per 1000 inhabitants, stable compared with 2011. According to Eurostat, the highest birth rates were recorded in Ireland (15.7‰), the United Kingdom (12.8‰), France (12.6‰), Sweden (11.9‰) and Cyprus (11.8%), and the lowest in Germany (8.4‰), Portugal (8.5‰), Greece and Italy (both 9.0‰) and Hungary (9.1‰).
On the other hand, there were 5.0 million deaths registered in the EU in 2012. The crude death rate was 9.9 per 1 000 inhabitants, compared with 9.6‰ in 2011. The highest death rate was observed in Bulgaria (15.0‰), followed by Latvia (14.3‰), Lithuania (13.7‰), Hungary (13.0‰), Romania (12.7‰) and Croatia (12.1‰). The lowest death rate was recorded in Ireland (6.3‰). Cyprus (6.6‰), Luxembourg (7.3‰), Malta (8.1‰) and the Netherlands (8.4‰) followed.
Therefore, the highest natural growth of the population was registered in Ireland (+9.5‰), well ahead of Cyprus (+5.2‰), Luxembourg (+4.0‰), France and the United Kingdom (both +3.8‰). Twelve Member States had negative natural growth, with the largest falls in Bulgaria (-5.5‰), Latvia (-4.5‰), Hungary (-3.9‰), Lithuania (-3.5‰), Romania (-2.7‰) and Germany (-2.4‰).
Eurostat highlighted that in 2012 the increase of the EU population was mainly because of migration. According to the EU statistics office around 80 per cent of the increase in the EU28 population came from migration.
In conclusion, the population increased in seventeen Member States and decreased in eleven. The largest relative increases were observed in Luxembourg (+23.0‰), Malta (+9.1‰), Sweden (+7.7‰), the United Kingdom (+6.2‰), Belgium (+6.0‰) and Austria (+5.2‰), and the largest decreases in Lithuania (-10.6‰), Latvia(-10.3‰), Estonia (-6.8‰), Bulgaria (-5.8‰), Greece (-5.5‰) and Portugal (-5.2‰).
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