The Population in Bulgaria is Decreasing with One of the Fastest Rates in Europe

The population in Bulgaria is decreasing with one of the fastest rates in Europe, reaching 7,101 million people as of January 1, 2017 compared to 7,153 million the previous year. This shows the latest Eurostat data released on Monday.

According to statistics, just for one year the population of the country has decreased by 0.73%, or 51 925, compared to 2016. The data also show that Bulgarians account for 1.4% of the total population of the European Union, which totaled 511.8 million at the beginning of January compared to 510.3 in the previous year.

In 2016, the same number of births and deaths was reported in the EU - 5.1 million, which means that the natural growth of the EU remains neutral. That is why the positive change with a growth of 1.5 million people is explained by migration from countries outside Europe.

With 82.8 million people, or 16.2% of the total EU population, Germany is the EU's most populous country, followed by France (67 million or 13.1%), the United Kingdom (65.8 Million ,12.9%), Italy (60.6 million or 11.8%), Spain (46.5 million or 9.1%) and Poland (38.0 million, or 7.4%).

The largest population growth is seen in Luxembourg (19.8 ‰ ), Sweden (14.5 ‰), Malta (13.8 ‰), Ireland (10.6 ‰) and Austria (9.5 ‰). At the same time, the largest decline was recorded in Lithuania (-14.2 ‰), Latvia (-9.6 ‰), Croatia (-9.7 ‰), Bulgaria (-7.3 ‰) and Romania (-6,2 ‰).