EUROPOP2008: a set of population projections for the European Union

Giampaolo Lanzieri, Eurostat

The ageing process ongoing in the Member States of the European Union (EU) brings new challenges to their societies. To assess the implications of the demographic changes (e.g., for the assessment of the long-term sustainability of the public finances), population projections are regularly produced by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). The last round was based on the population on 1 January 2008 and covers the period 2008-2061 for each Member State of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland. The assumptions for fertility, mortality and migration have been developed under the hypothesis that the socio-economic differences between Member States of the EU will fade out in the long run (Convergence scenario). The results show the different speeds of ageing of the EU countries and the possible depopulation for some of them.