Malta recorded the highest rate of increase of population in the European Union last year, with an increase of 24.1 per 1,000 people, new data from Eurostat has found.
Other countries to report a notable rate of increase between 1 January 2025 and 1 January 2026 included Cyprus (+13.7 per 1,000 people) and Luxembourg (+13.1). The sharpest rates of population decline were seen in Latvia (-8.3 per 1,000 people), Estonia (-6.8) and Hungary ( 5.4).
Population increased in 16 EU countries during 2025, the data showed, with the overall population of the European Union reaching an estimated 452.0 million people on 1 January 2026.
Population growth in the EU
The EU’s population increased by 706,000 people over the previous year, marking the fifth consecutive year of growth following the decline recorded in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Since 2012, the negative natural change in the EU population (more deaths than births) has been compensated by positive net migration,’ Eurostat noted.
As a result of the increase, the EU’s population has increased by 8 million people over the past decade, rising from 444.0 million in 2016 to 452.0 million at the start of 2026. Compared with 2006, the population has grown by 16 million people.
Looking at longer-term trends, the EU population has increased by 97.5 million people since 1960, when it stood at 354.5 million.
Pace of growth
However, the pace of growth has slowed considerably. During the 1960s, the EU’s population increased by an average of 3 million people each year, compared with an average annual increase of around 600,000 during the 2010s.
Germany remained the EU’s most populous member state with 83.5 million residents, followed by France with 69.2 million, Italy with 58.8 million, Spain with 49.9 million and Poland with 36.2 million.
Together, these five countries account for around two-thirds of the EU’s total population. At the other end of the scale, Malta had the smallest population in the EU, at around 600,000 people. Read more here.
