These trends come from the third Demography Report published jointly by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and the Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission.

The aim of this third report is to provide the latest facts and figures needed for an informed debate on the demographic challenges. This News Release concentrates on the first part of the publication, which looks at historical and recent trends in fertility, life expectancy and migration, which are the three drivers of population change. A review of the population structure by age and family composition is also provided. The report also includes a second part on the increasing number of EU citizens who look across national borders for study, work and life experiences.

Largest number of children per woman in Ireland, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden
After falling sharply between 1980 and the early 2000s, the fertility rate in the EU27 started to increase again in 2003, when it stood at 1.47 children per woman, to reach a level of 1.60 in 2008. The fertility rate rose in all Member States, except Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal. The largest increases over this period were observed in Bulgaria (from 1.23 children per woman in 2003 to 1.57 in 2009), Slovenia (from 1.20 to 1.53), the Czech Republic (from 1.18 to 1.49) and Lithuania (from 1.26 to 1.55).

In 2009, the Member States with the highest fertility rates were Ireland (2.07), France (2.00), the United Kingdom (1.96 in 2008) and Sweden (1.94), all approaching the replacement level of 2.1. The lowest rates were observed in Latvia (1.31), Hungary and Portugal (both 1.32) and Germany (1.36).

At age 65, life expectancy is highest for both women and men in France and Spain
Over the last 50 years, life expectancy at birth in the EU27 has increased by around 10 years for both women and men, to reach 82.4 years for women and 76.4 years for men in 2008. The life expectancy at birth rose in all Member States, with the largest increases for both women and men recorded in Estonia and Slovenia. 

In 2009, the highest life expectancies at birth for women were observed in France (85.1), Spain (84.9), Italy (84.5 in 2008) and Cyprus (83.6), and for men in Sweden (79.4), Italy (79.1 in 2008), Spain and the Netherlands (both 78.7). 

Having reached the age of 65, women in the EU27 could expect to live an additional 20.7 years and men an additional 17.2 years. As for life expectancy at birth, life expectancy at age 65 has also increased in all Member States between 1993 and 2009, with the largest increases for both women and men in Ireland.

32 million foreigners living in EU27 Member States in 2010
In recent years, immigration has been the main driver behind population growth in most Member States: between 2004 and 2008, 3 to 4 million immigrants settled in the EU27 each year. In 2010, a breakdown of the population by citizenship showed that there were 32.4 million foreigners living in an EU27 Member State (6.5% of the total population), of those, 12.3 million were EU27 nationals living in another Member State and 20.1 million were citizens from a non-EU27 country.

In 2010, the largest numbers of foreign citizens were recorded in Germany (7.1 million persons), Spain (5.7 million), the United Kingdom (4.4 million), Italy (4.2 million) and France (3.8 million). Almost 80% of the foreign citizens in the EU27 lived in these five Member States.

Among the EU27 Member States, the highest percentage of foreign citizens in the population was observed in Luxembourg (43% of the total population), followed by Latvia (17%), Estonia and Cyprus (both 16%), Spain (12%) and Austria (11%).