"After a decline in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU’s population has increased for the second consecutive year, rising from 447.6 million on 1 January 2023 to 449.2 million people on 1 January 2024," says Eurostat.
Positive net migration
"The negative natural change (more deaths than births) was outnumbered by the positive net migration. The observed population growth can be largely attributed to the increased migratory movements post-COVID-19 and to the influx of displaced persons from Ukraine who received temporary protection status in EU countries, as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022."
95 million people more over period of 64 years
"When considering a longer time frame, the population of the EU grew from 354.5 million in 1960 to 449.2 million on 1 January 2024, an increase of 94.7 million people," says Eurostat.
"The rate of population growth has gradually slowed down in recent decades: the EU population increased on average by about 0.6 million persons per year during the period 2015–2024, whereas the average increase in the 1960s was 2.9 million people per year. While the EU population briefly declined in 2020 by around half a million persons and in 2021 by almost 0.3 million persons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has started to regain its growth as the new figures show."
Germany is the EU country with the highest number of inhabitants, 83.4 million, while Malta is the smallest country with 600,000.
Three countries -- Germany, France and Italy --account for a nearly half of the total EU population.
Of the 27 EU members, 20 saw a rise in the population and seven a decline.
Of those seven countries, Poland tops the ranking, where the population shrank by 132,800, Greece follows with a decline of 16,000 and Hungary, where the population downsized by 15,000.
Highest rise in population of Spain
Of the countries with a positive net population rate, Spain tops the ranking with 525,000 more residents, Germany ranks second (+330,000) and France third (+229,000).
Croatia's negative natural change was offset by positive net migration, and the country saw a rise of 11,000 in its population from 3.85 million on 1 January 2023 to 3.861 million on 1 January 2024.