European Demographic Datasheet 2022

For a detailed list of data sources, references and notes, see the following file:

To get the full list of definitions shown below, see the following file:

Definitions

Definition	Description
Population	Total population of a given country or region as of 1^st January 2021, resp. 1^st January 2000 in millions. For most countries this count represents the legal resident population in the country, including foreign citizens with a residence permit. Source: EUROSTAT¹ (in several cases, the figure was taken from the official publications of NSO², and also from Census 2021 results³.
Total population change	The total population growth or decline between 2000 and 2021, related to the population size in 2000, in %.
Natural population change	The difference between the number of live births and deaths, in 2000 to 2021, related to population size in 2000.
Net migration	The difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants, in 2000 to 2021, related to population size in 2000. The indicator is estimated as the difference between total population increase and natural increase.
Net migration	The difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants, in 2000 to 2021, related to population size in 2000. The indicator is estimated as the difference between total population increase and natural increase.
Proportion of foreign-born population	Share of population born abroad and resident in the country in 2021 or 2020 among all population, in %. Source: EUROSTAT; United Nations International migrant stock data⁴
Old-age dependency ratio	The old-age dependency ratio relates the number of elderly people (defined as those aged 65 and above) to the number of people of working age (aged 20–64). Source: EUROSTAT, NSO.
Projected population SSP2	Projected population in 2060 based on Wittgenstein Centre (2018) projection⁵ using assumptions of a medium scenario that can also be seen as the most likely path for each country from today's perspective. It combines for all countries medium fertility with medium mortality, medium migration, and the Global Education Trend (GET) scenarios. Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer⁶
Projected population SSP2 – Zero migration	Projected population in 2060 based on Wittgenstein Centre projection using assumptions of a medium scenario (medium fertility, medium mortality, Global Education Trend (GET) education scenario) combined with zero migration flows. Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer.
Projected change in working age population (%)	Based on projected population in 2060 based on Wittgenstein Centre projection, SSP2. Proportion of working age population (ages 20–64). Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer.
Projected change in working age population – Zero migration (%)	Based on projected population in 2060 based on Wittgenstein Centre projection, zero migration. Proportion of working age population (ages 20–64). Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer.
Total fertility rate (TFR)	The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime, if age-specific fertility rates of a given year remained constant during her childbearing years. It is computed as the sum of fertility rates by age across all childbearing ages in 2020. Source: EUROSTAT, HFD⁷NSO, RFMD⁸, and UN WPP⁹.
Change in TFR	Change in total fertility rate between 2010 and 2020. Source: identical as for the TFR.
Tempo and parity adjusted TFR	Alternative indicators to the period TFR have been developed to provide a more accurate measure of the mean number of children per woman in a calendar year, which is not affected by changes in the timing of births. This datasheet features Tempo and Parity-adjusted Total Fertility (TFRp; Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012)¹⁰, which is based on age- and parity-specific fertility rates as well as changes in mean ages at birth. When available, TFRp is shown for 2018. For countries lacking the required data, the datasheet displays Tempo-adjusted TFR (TFR-BF) proposed by Bongaarts and Feeney in (1998)¹¹, averaged over the 3-year period of 2017–2019. For more details and references see the box on Tempo effect. For details on computation method and sources for individual countries see the following file DOWNLOAD MAIN TABLE
Mean age at first birth	The mean age of women at the birth of their first child (in years), computed from age-specific fertility rates of first birth order in 2020. Source: EUROSTAT, HFD, NSO, HFC¹².
Completed cohort fertility	The average number of children born alive to women born in the same year (i.e., a birth cohort) during their reproductive lives. Unlike the TFR, which is a hypothetical period indicator, completed fertility represents a measure of actual family size and is known only for women who have completed their childbearing. In this datasheet we show completed fertility of women born in 1980, who reached age 40 in 2020 (i.e., the most recent year for which fertility data were available for most countries at the time the datasheet was prepared). As only a small proportion of births take place among women past age 40 (3.0% in the EU in 2020), it is possible to estimate the completed fertility rate for these women with a great accuracy, using the most recent available data for 2020 as an estimate of their childbearing at ages 41 and older. Source: HFD, HFC.
Cohort childlessness	Proportion of women remaining permanently childless, in %. The values show the estimated share of childless women among women born in 1980. Source: HFD, HFC, NSO, German Microcensus¹³, and for France Koeppen et al. (2017)¹⁴.
Life expectancy at birth	Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn, born in 2020, would live if current age- and sex-specific mortality rates were to continue. Source: EUROSTAT, NSO, Heuveline et al. (2022)¹⁵, Aburto et al. (2022)¹⁶.
Change in life expectancy	Relative change in the number of births between 2020 and 2021 (related to the number in 2020, in %). Source: various sources, mainly NSO, and STFF¹⁷.
Change in number of deaths	Relative change in the number of deaths between 2019 and 2020, and 2019 and 2021 (related to the number in 2019, in %). Source: various sources, mainly NSO, and STMF¹⁸.
Natural population change	Difference between number of births, and number of deaths, in 2021, related to population (per thousand). Source: identical as for change in number of births, and deaths.
Human capital compensation relative to global average	The indicator shows how well the European countries fare in offsetting the effect of declining fertility through health and education investments compared to global average. All European countries except for Portugal are above the global level. This means they are better able to compensate falling fertility by education and health investments than countries in other regions of the world. See box on Human capital for further details. Source: Siskova et al. (2022)¹⁹.

¹ EUROSTAT Database, European Commission 2022. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
² NSO: National statistical organisation.
³ Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, North Macedonia, and Poland.
⁴ United Nations International migrant stock 2020. Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock
⁵ Lutz W., Goujon A., KC S., Stonawski M., Stilianakis N. 2018. Demographic and Human Capital Scenarios for the 21st Century: 2018 assessment for 201 countries. Publications Office of the European Union. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/demographic-and-human-capital-scenarios-21st-century-2018-assessment-201-countries
⁶ Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, (2022). Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 2.0. Available at: http://dataexplorer.wittgensteincentre.org/wcde-v2/
⁷ HFD: Human Fertility Database. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Vienna Institute of Demography. Available at http://www.humanfertility.org
⁸ RFD: Russian Fertility and Mortality Database. Center for Demographic Research, Moscow. Available at http://demogr.nes.ru/index.php/ru/demogr_indicat/dataHFD
⁹ UN WPP: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2019. World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition. Rev. 1. https://population.un.org/wpp/
¹⁰ Bongaarts, J. and T. Sobotka 2012. A demographic explanation for the recent rise in European fertility. Population and Development Review 38(1): 83–120.
¹¹ Bongaarts, J. and G. Feeney 1998. On the quantum and tempo of fertility. Population and Development Review 24(2): 271–291.
¹² HFC: Human Fertility Collection. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Vienna Institute of Demography. Available at: http://www.fertilitydata.org
¹³ Microcensus. Research Data Centre of the Federal Statistical Office. Available at https://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en/household/microcensus
¹⁴ Köppen, K., Mazuy, M., Toulemon, L. 2017. Childlessness in France. In: Kreyenfeld, M., Konietzka, D. (eds) Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences. Demographic Research Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44667-7_4
¹⁵ Heuveline, P. 2022. Global and National Declines in Life Expectancy: An End-of-2021 Assessment. Population and Development Review 48(1): 31–50. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/padr.12477
¹⁶ Aburto, J. M., Schöley, J., Kashnitsky, I., Zhang, L., Rahal, C., Missov, T. I., ... & Kashyap, R. 2022. Quantifying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through life-expectancy losses: a population-level study of 29 countries. International journal of epidemiology 51(1): 63–74.
¹⁷ STFF: Short Term Fertility Fluctuations. 2022. Human Fertility Database. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and Vienna Institute of Demography (Austria). Available at: https://www.humanfertility.org/cgi-bin/stff.php
¹⁸ Short Term Mortality Fluctuations. 2022. Human Mortality Database. University of California, Berkeley (USA), and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany). Available at: https://www.mortality.org/
¹⁹ Siskova, M., Kuhn, M., Prettner, K. and Prskawetz, A. (2022). Does human capital compensate for depopulation? Vienna Institute of Demography Working Papers 02/2022.

Notes

The Datasheet does not feature European countries with population below 100 thousand (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco San Marino and Vatican).

Data for Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine exclude territories that are not under government control.

Definition of regions takes into account geographical, historical and geopolitical divisions, as well as similarity in demographic trends. Countries are grouped into regions as follows:

Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)
Western Europe (Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom)
Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain)
Central-Eastern Europe (Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia)
South-Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia)
Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine)
Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia)

Turkey is not included in any region.

European Union refers to the current territory of 27 member states.

Authors

Tomáš Sobotka, Kryštof Zeman and Zuzanna Brzozowska (data collection and coordination, main data table, maps, rankings, regional overview, boxes "Corona babies", "Natural population change during the COVID-19 pandemic", and "Tempo effect")
Vanessa Di Lego ("Life expectancy declines during the COVID-19 pandemic", maps)
Michaela Potančoková, Marcin Stonawski, and Nicholas Gailey ("How migration impacts projected working-age population")
Bernhard Binder-Hammer, Sonja Spitzer and Alexia Prskawetz ("Income disparities")
Michael Kuhn, Klaus Prettner, Alexia Prskawetz and Martina Siskova ("Education and health investments")

Copy editing

Brian Buh and Ross Barker

Administrative assistances

Lisa Janisch

Graphic design (poster)

Christian Högl creativbox.at

Website

Bernhard Rengs
based on the webdesign of the European Fertility Datasheet 2015 by Andrzej Dziekoński, BOOST IT

Suggested citation:

Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) 2022. European Demographic Datasheet 2022. Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/OEAW, University of Vienna), Vienna. Available at www.populationeurope.org

Definitions, sources and notes