European Demographic Datasheet 2026

For a detailed list of data sources, references and notes, see the following file:

Definitions

Definition	Description
Population	Total population of a given country or region as of 1.1.2025, or 1.1.2000, in millions. For most countries, this figure represents the legal resident population in the country, including foreign citizens with a residence permit. Source: EUROSTAT¹; in several cases, the figure was taken from the official publications of NSO², and from UNDESA (2024)³. Data for Kosovo come from the Population census 2024 (KAS 2024)⁴
Total population change	The total population growth or decline between 2000 and 2025, relative to the population size in 2000, in %.
Natural population change	The difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths from 2000 to 2024, relative to the population size in 2000, in %.
Net migration	This indicator reflects the population growth or decline due to international migration. It is estimated as the difference between the total population change and the natural population change from 1.1.2000 to 1.1.2025, in %.
Proportion of foreign-born population	Share of the population born abroad and resident in the country in 2025 (EUROSTAT) or 2024 (UN) among the total population, in %. Source: EUROSTAT; if not available: United Nations International Migrant Stock data (UNDESA 2024)³
Proportion of population aged 65+	Share of persons aged 65 years and older in the total population as of 1.1.2025, in %. Source: EUROSTAT, NSO, for Kosovo KAS (2024).
Projected population	Projected population in 2100 based on the Wittgenstein Centre (2024)⁵ projection using assumptions of a medium scenario (SSP2), which can also be seen as the most likely path for each country from today's perspective. It combines medium fertility with the medium mortality, medium migration, and Global Education Trend (GET) scenarios. Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer ⁶.
Projected population – Zero migration	Projected population in 2100 based on the Wittgenstein Centre projection using assumptions of a medium scenario (SSP2) combined with zero migration flows. Source: Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer.
Total fertility rate (TFR)	The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime if the age-specific fertility rates of a given year remained constant during her childbearing years. It is computed as the sum of fertility rates by age across all childbearing ages in 2024. Source: EUROSTAT, NSO. Figure for Ukraine is the estimate made by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Figure for UK is estimated based on the TFR of England&Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Change in TFR	Change in the total fertility rate between 2019 and 2024. Source: Same as for the TFR.
Tempo- and parity-adjusted TFR	Alternative indicators for the period TFR have been developed to provide a more accurate measure of the mean number of children per woman in a calendar year, which is not affected by changes in the timing of births. This datasheet features the tempo- and parity-adjusted total fertility rate (TFRp; Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012)⁷, which is based on age- and parity-specific fertility rates as well as changes in the mean age at birth. When available, the TFRp is shown for 2022. For countries lacking the required data, the datasheet displays the tempo-adjusted TFR (TFR-BF), proposed by Bongaarts and Feeney in (1998)⁸, averaged over the three-year period of 2021–2023. Sources: EUROSTAT¹, HFD⁹, HFC¹⁰, RFMD¹¹, and NSO. For more details and references, see the box on the tempo effect. For details on the computation method and the sources for individual countries, see the file DOWNLOAD MAIN TABLE
Mean age at first birth	The mean age of women at the birth of their first child (in years), computed from age-specific fertility rates of first-order births in 2024. Source: EUROSTAT, NSO, RFMD. Figure for UK shows the value for England&Wales.
Completed cohort fertility	The average number of children born alive to women born in the same year (i.e., a birth cohort) during their reproductive lives. Unlike the TFR, which is a hypothetical period indicator, completed fertility represents a measure of actual family size, and is known only for women who have completed their childbearing. In this datasheet, we show the completed fertility of women born in 1984, who reached age 40 in 2024 (i.e., the most recent year for which fertility data were available for most countries at the time the datasheet was being prepared). As only a small proportion of births are born to women over age 40 (3.5% in the EU in 2024), it is possible to estimate the completed fertility rate for these women with a high degree of accuracy using the most recent available data for 2024 as an estimate of their childbearing at ages 41 and older. Source: HFD, HFC, Census data (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia).
Cohort childlessness	Proportion of women remaining permanently childless, in %. The values show the estimated share of childless women among women born in 1984. Source: HFD, HFC, NSO, Census data (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia), German Microcensus¹². Figure for UK shows the value for England&Wales.
Life expectancy at birth	Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a person born in 2024 would live if current age- and sex-specific mortality rates were to continue. Source: EUROSTAT, NSO. Bosnia and Herzegovina: estimates based on Census 2021. Kosovo: UN WPP 2023 . Figures for Ukraine are estimates made by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Healthy life years	The number of remaining years an individual is expected to live without long-standing limitations in usual activities of daily living (Global Activity Limitations Indicator), based on EU-SILC data published by Eurostat. Caution is needed when interpreting the figures, as the indicators are based on self-reported data. Source: EUROSTAT¹⁴.
Excess deaths 2020-2023	Excess deaths in 2020–2023 are estimated as observed minus expected deaths in % of expected deaths. Expected deaths for 2020–2023 are ex-ante projected deaths from Eurostat 2019¹⁵for EU/EFTA countries, ONS (2019)¹⁶for the UK, and WPP (2019)¹⁷ for USA and Japan. Observed deaths are taken from EUROSTAT Database¹ and from HMD¹⁸.
Job-protected leave after birth	Job-protected leave duration available to birth mothers (maximum duration). Source: EPLP¹⁹
Co-parent leave	Job-protected leave duration available to co-parents (maximum duration). Source: EPLP.
Top-half benefit ratio and old-age benefit ratio	Benefit ratios are used to quantify the extent and the direction of social redistribution. They are calculated by comparing the total social benefits received by a particular socioeconomic group relative to the total income of households in a country. The old-age benefit ratio measures the social benefits received by the population aged 60 and older relative to the total gross income of all households. The top-half benefit ratio measures the benefits received by the half of the population with the highest equalised income. Source: Hammer et al. (2023)²⁰.
Working from home	The proportion of employed persons aged 25 to 59 sometimes or usually working from home. Source: EUROSTAT²¹
Persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion at age below 65 and 65+	At risk of poverty or social exclusion, abbreviated as AROPE, corresponds to the sum of persons who are either at risk of poverty, or severely materially and socially deprived or living in a household with a very low work intensity – (quasi-)jobless households. The indicators show their proportion (%) among population aged below 65 or 65+ resp. Source: EUROSTAT ²²

¹ EUROSTAT Database, European Commission 2026. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
² NSO: National statistical organisations.
³ UNDESA: United Nations Population Division. International Migrant Stock 2024. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock
⁴ KAS: Kosovo Agency of Statistics 2024. 2024 Census of Population, Family Economy and Housing. https://ask.rks-gov.net/Rekos
⁵ K.C., S., Dhakad, M., Potančoková, M., Adhikari, S., Yildiz, D., Mamolo, M., Sobotka, T., Zeman, K., Abel, G., Lutz, W. and Goujon, A. 2024. Updating the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) Global Population and Human Capital Projections. IIASA Working Paper. Laxenburg, Austria: WP-24-003. Available at: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/19487/
⁶ Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital. 2024. Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 3.0. Available at: https://dataexplorer.wittgensteincentre.org/wcde-v3/
⁷ Bongaarts, J. and T. Sobotka 2012. A demographic explanation for the recent rise in European fertility. Population and Development Review 38(1): 83–120.
⁸ Bongaarts, J. and G. Feeney 1998. On the quantum and tempo of fertility. Population and Development Review 24(2): 271–291.
⁹ HFD: Human Fertility Database 2026. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Vienna Institute of Demography. Available at https://www.humanfertility.org
¹⁰ HFC: Human Fertility Collection 2026. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Vienna Institute of Demography. Available at: https://www.fertilitydata.org
¹¹ RFMD: Russian Fertility and Mortality Database 2024. Center for Demographic Research, Moscow. Available at https://www.nes.ru/demogr-fermort-data?lang=en
¹² Microcensus 2022. Research Data Centre of the Federal Statistical Office. Available at https://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en/household/microcensus
¹³ UN WPP: United Nations World Population Prospects 2024. https://population.un.org/wpp/
¹⁴ EUROSTAT. Healthy life years by sex.https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_hlye/default/table?lang=en
^15/sup> EUROPOP 2019. Population projections at national level (2019-2100). EUROSTAT. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/proj_19ndbi__custom_16141730/default/table
¹⁶ ONS: Office for National Statistics 2019. National population projections: 2018-based. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2018based
¹⁷ UN WPP 2019: United Nations World Population Prospects 2019. https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/news/world-population-prospects-2019-0
¹⁸ HMD: Human Mortality Database. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany), University of California, Berkeley (USA), and French Institute for Demographic Studies (France). Available at https://www.mortality.org
¹⁹ Spitzer, S., Lemoine, A., Song, Z. et al. (2025). European Parenting Leave Policies Dataset. https://eplp-dataset.org
²⁰ Hammer, B., Christl, M. and De Poli, S. 2023. Public redistribution in Europe: Between generations or income groups? The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 24(100426). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100426
²¹ Eurostat database. Employed persons working from home by professional status - % of total employment. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfsa_ehomp$defaultview/default/table?lang=en
²² Eurostat database. At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:At_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion_(AROPE)

Definitions of regions

takes into account geographical, historical and geopolitical divisions, as well as similarity in demographic trends. Countries are grouped into regions as follows:

Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)
Western Europe (Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom)
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain)
Central-Eastern Europe (Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia)
South-Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia)
Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine)
Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia)

Türkiye is not included in any region.
Indicators for regions are computed as population weighted averages.
European Union refers to the current territory of 27 member states.
The Datasheet does not cover European countries with population below 100 thousand (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican).
Data for Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine exclude territories that are not under government control.

Authors

Kryštof Zeman and Tomáš Sobotka (data collection and coordination, main data table, front side maps, regional overview, boxes Tempo effects and Shocks and babies)
Paola di Giulio (Box: Years spent in good health)
Andrea Tamburini and Anne Goujon (Box: Europe’s intergenerational poverty divide)
Sonja Spitzer, Adèle Lemoine, Claudia Reiter, Constantin Kumaus and Zhanxiong Song (Box: The evolution of parenting leave policies)
Guillaume Marois, Michaela Potančoková and Ingeborg Spiegeler Castañeda (Box: Future skill mismatches)
Shalini Singh, Ester Lazzari and Cristina Suero (Box: Falling short of ideals)
Marco Santacroce and Caroline Berghammer (Box: The expansion of flexible work)
Bernhard Binder-Hammer (Box: Who benefits from European welfare states?)
Richard Gisser (Indicator of Excess deaths)
Tamara Vaz de Moraes Santos (Indicators of Life expectancy and Healthy life years)

Acknowledgements

Dmytro Shushpanov (Ptukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) for providing selected recent indicators for Ukraine.
Olga Pötzsch (DESTATIS) for the estimates from the German Microcensus 2022.
Zsolt Spéder (Hungarian Demographic Research Institute) for the estimates of childlessness in Hungary.

Suggested citation

Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) 2026. European Demographic Datasheet 2026. Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA/POPJUS, OeAW/VID, Univ. Vienna/DoD), Vienna. Available at www.populationeurope.org

Copy editing

Miriam Hils

Administrative assistances

Sophie Brunner

Website

Bernhard Rengs (layout, development, programming)

Release date

8.6.2026 (online), 1.6.2026 (poster)

Imprint / Legal

This website is maintained by the Vienna Institute of Demography, see the imprint of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
© Wittgenstein Centre, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) 2026

Definitions, sources and notes