THE European Union recorded in 2020 due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic record number of deaths for the last 60 years based on the first available statistics, which led to a slight decrease in population.
As announced on Friday (9/7) the Eurostat EU countries recorded 534,000 more deaths than 2019 (+ 11%): deaths rose from 4.7 million to 5.2 million. “The number reflects the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
A spokesman clarified that This is the “highest number of annual deaths since 1961”, the first year for which statistics are available for all of these countries.
The number of deaths increased in all EU countries during this period, but mainly in Italy (+111.700, + 18%), Spain (+75.500, + 18%) and Poland (+67.600, +17 %), according to data published by the European Statistical Office.
This high mortality contributed to the slight decrease in the EU population in 2020, which increased from 447.3 million to 447 million.
The number of births continued to decline. The natural balance, ie the difference between the number of births and that of deaths, is negative from 2012 (except 2014 where it was zero) and decreases from 2016.
From 2001 to 2019, the population grew by 4%, an increase fueled mainly by a positive immigration balance. This balance fell in 2020, as it was hit by the effects of the pandemic.
“There was an impact, either because the borders were closed, which hindered the movement of the population during this period, or because people returned to their countries of origin due to job loss or some other reason,” said Eurostat expert Giampaolo Lanzieri. in the online presentation of the statistical data as broadcast by the Athenian News Agency.
However, the key element that explains the population decline is the impact of the pandemic on mortality, he explained.
The largest population decline was observed in Italy (-384,000, or -0.6% of the population), followed by Romania (-143,000, -0.7%) and Poland (-118,000, -0.3%).
In total, nine of the 27 member states had their population decline in 2020, the other 18 recorded an increase: such as France (+119,000, + 0.2%), where the number of births is higher than that of deaths.
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