Europe's Impending Demographic Disaster

A new report is warning that aging populations and declining birthrates will bring a demographic disaster to most of Europe within a generation.

1 minute read

September 12, 2008, 7:00 AM PDT

By Michael Dudley

"Eurostat, the European Union's statistics body, created a continent-wide frisson of alarm over the Aug. 31 weekend with a study bearing the innocuous title 'Population and social conditions.'

The statisticians discovered that it will be only seven years - not 20 or more years as previously thought - until a population milestone is reached, the point at which deaths will outnumber births across the continent, something that has not occurred since the disease-ridden years of the 18th century.

In other words, as of 2015, Europe's population will no longer increase naturally. And, even with immigration at its current levels, that means that within the next generation, the European population will begin shrinking.

Europeans are freaking out."

FULL STORY: Europe comes home to the shock of a demographic bombshell

Saturday, September 6, 2008 in The Globe and Mail

Social / Demographics Europe

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