Patterns of Population Change in Europe

The general view of demographic change in Europe is that populations are either declining or are on the verge of declining. Reality is more complicated--the devil is in the details and a new map out from Germany, and summarized by CityLab, shows those details. The map shows the average annual rate of population growth by subnational district between 2001 and 2011.

The map works as follows. Dark blue patches show an average annual population fall of 2 percent or more, the medium blue patches a fall of between 1 and 2 percent, and the lightest blue patches a fall of up to 1 percent. Areas in beige have experienced no statistically significant change, while the red areas show population growth. Municipalities in deep red have experienced an average annual population rise of 2 percent or more, the medium red of between 1 and 2 percent, and the pale pink areas of up to 1 percent. The different sizes of each colored shape, meanwhile, show the radically different sizes of municipal units across the continent—large in the Baltic States, Turkey, and Northern Scandinavia, but far smaller in Ireland, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

Here you can see clearly that the UK and Ireland, along with much of France have been experiencing population growth, partly as a function of immigration. Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are sending migrants westward, while Poland has been experiencing suburbanization. The Mediterranean areas are generally growing, as is northern Italy--at the expense of southern Italy. Turkey is undergoing all kinds of complex demographic shifts, which is consistent with its current political turmoil.