New figures from EU stats agency Eurostat shows that Ireland officially has the highest birth rate in Europe, as well as having the largest natural increase in population.
Ireland’s birth rate for 2016 is 63.9 births for every 1,000 residents, for a birth rate of 13.5%.
Italy comes in at the lowest with a birth rate of 7.8% while the UK came in at 11.8%.
Ireland also registered for the lowest death rate in the EU, with 6.4 deaths for every 1,000 residents, putting the rate at 7.1%.
As many #births as #deaths were recorded in the EU in 2016: natural change of the #population was neutral https://t.co/KAfTGdTrZb pic.twitter.com/HDcSCkGO1O
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) July 10, 2017
2016 saw Ireland’s population grow at a rate of 10.6% compared to the EU average of 3%, with the EU’s total population increasing from 510.3 million to 511.8 million.
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