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| Europe |
| Fall in EU population forecast by 2050 |
| 2005-04-09 |
| Another reminder of why the 'socialist' mentality kills societies. The population of the European Union will fall dramatically by 2050, even allowing for the arrival of millions of immigrants, an official survey reported yesterday. Deaths would begin to outnumber births across the EU in the next five years, it predicted. A collapse in childbirth rates and increased emigration has already caused populations to start shrinking in several of the former communist countries of eastern and central Europe that joined the EU last year. The survey by the EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, showed that by 2013 the population of Italy would start to fall, joined a year later by Germany and Slovenia and, in 2018, by Portugal. The population of Britain will continue to grow, peaking in 2040, followed by 10 years of gentle decline. Eurostat estimates that, by 2050, the population will be 64.3 million, compared with 59.6 million today. Overall, the total population of the EU is expected to rise by more than 13 million between now and 2025, although after 2010 that increase will be entirely the result of immigration. By 2025, even net migration will not be able to counteract the falling fertility of the continent and by 2050 the population of the EU will be 450 million, a decrease of more than 20 million people from the peak. There are rare exceptions: the populations of Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Sweden will continue to grow even after 2050, the survey says. The research was commissioned to try to estimate the scale of the pensions crisis that Europe will face as its population ages dramatically. Most governments fund retirement benefits from the taxes paid by those in employment and that system will come under intolerable strain as Europe becomes greyer. Some countries, such as Spain and Italy, face having one in three citizens over retirement age. The European Commission said it would be sending the data to national governments in the hope of urging them to carry out vital reforms. Some countries have ducked serious reforms. Far from reforming, France, for example, has increased its pensions burdens, bowing to pressure to lower the retirement age for certain professions and trades, such as lorry drivers, after protests and industrial action. Big Government: it's everyone's enemy! |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #2 Projections of people's attitudes 40 years into the future are only good for entertainment. Look back at what the futurists were predicting 40 years ago. Snicker. |
| Posted by: James 2005-04-09 10:14:21 AM |
| #1 I think the interesting thing here is the continuing emigration from the EU. I suggest an important factor is people with kids or intending to have kids are moving to places they percieve as better for their children's future. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-09 6:51:10 AM |