Birth rate hits record low in EU

The number of children born in the European Union in 2023 was 3 million 655 thousand, according to data from Eurostat, a European statistical service. This figure is the lowest since the collection of data began in 1961, as reported by the British newspaper Financial Times (FT).

Earlier forecasts had predicted that the birth rate in the EU would reach around 4 million children in 2023.
However, the actual figure was lower, marking a 5.5% decline compared to the previous year, which is the largest annual drop. It was noted that the peak birth rate in EU countries was recorded in the 1960s, when approximately 7 million children were born each year. The newspaper emphasized that the low birth rate in Europe will increase the burden on public budgets as the working-age population decreases while health and pension costs rise.

According to Eurostat, the trend of declining birth rates is most pronounced in the Baltic states, Greece, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Finland, where the number of births has decreased by at least a quarter over the past decade.