EU-DIGEST

The Russian drama seems to intensify with each passing hour.

I certainly have my opinion on the matter, as, no doubt, do you. But it’s not my opinion that I want to share with you today. Instead, I want to share two charts that may well shed new light on recent events…

Read more at: The Shocking Truth About Russia

The EU's population declined in 2021 for the second year in a row, in part due to the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat, the EU.

The total population of the 27 EU member states fell from 447 million on 1 January 2021 to 446.8 on 1 January 2022, the European statistics office said in a note, a net decline of about 172,000 people.

The only other time since the 1960s that the EU registered a fall in population was in 2011, but it picked up the following year due to net migration.

Read more at: EU population shrinks for second year in a row in 2021, partly due to the pandemic | Euronews

A survey carried out by the TV show EenVandaag among 27.000 panellists has found that 64 percent of people in the Netherlands believe it is a good idea to offer a third COVID-19 vaccination to vulnerable members of the population. Only 16 percent of respondents opposed the plan, while the remaining 20 percent were unsure, most of whom were unvaccinated themselves.

Those in favour of the plan felt booster shots were a promising idea if they offered vulnerable people additional protection against the Delta variant. Among this group, 86 percent who are already vaccinated said they would eventually like to receive an additional dose if it offered them extra protection against COVID-19. Interestingly, the survey found that even those in favour of a

Read more at: Significant support for booster shots in the Netherlands, government awaits advice

The population of the Netherlands grew by 63,000 last year, half the increase recorded in 2019, according to new figures from national statistics agency CBS.

The increase, driven largely by EU migration, took the population to almost 17.5 million by the end of the year, the CBS said in its initial forecast. The decline in growth is due both to more people dying in the first half of the year and a downturn in the number of new immigrants and international students coming to the Netherlands, the CBS said.

Read more at: Population growth halves as coronavirus cuts immigration - DutchNews.nl

The World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries around the world according to how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. 2020 marks the eighth edition of the report and has the theme “environments for happiness”. It examines data from 2017, 2018, and 2019 to put together a conclusive ranking.

The ranking is compiled using data from the Gallup World Poll, in which respondents are asked to evaluate the happiness of their own lives on a scale of one to 10. Using the survey results, the ranking also shows the estimated extent to which six different factors impact happiness:

Gross Domestic Product per capita, Life expectancy, Social support, Freedom, Corruption,

According to the 2020 report, the 10 happiest countries in the world are: 1) Finland 2) Denmark 3) Switzerland 4) Iceland 5) Norway 6) The Netherlands 7) Sweden 8) New Zealand 9) Austria 10 Luxembourg

Read more at: EU-Digest

Russia urgently needs to attract immigrants over the coming years to avoid labor shortages, the country’s top migration officer said Monday.

“Even if we manage to stabilize or increase the population by raising the birth rate, the only source for increasing the labor force for the coming 15 to 20 years will be migration,” Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky told Interfax in an interview.

Romodanovsky said that the Kremlin had ordered him to keep migration stable at about 300,000 people per year and that this number should include ethnic Russians from abroad, highly qualified foreign specialists and promising youths.

The figure of 300,000 immigrants was formulated by Vladimir Putin in a programmatic newspaper article in his presidential campaign one year ago. Critics have voiced serious doubts about its feasibility, arguing that the government’s past attempts to lure Russian speakers and qualified migrants to the country have seen little success.

Romodanovsky warned that according to official data, the country’s population is expected to fall from the current 143 million to 139.3 million by 2030. “It is problematic to refuse to attract foreign workers and to focus exclusively on your own labor resources when those are strongly declining,” he said.

Read more: Russia Needs Immigrants, FMS Chief Says | News | The Moscow Times

For the complete report from Novinite.com click on this link

European Union Population Nears 500 Million

The European Union's population is on course to break through the 500 million mark in 2009. Latest figures from the EU statistics agency, Eurostat, indicated that on Monday. The total number of people living in the European Union's 27 states rose by 2,1 million, or 0,4%, over 12 months to January and now stands at 499,8 million people, the latest figures from Eurostat showed. It was the fourth year in a row that the population had risen and comes despite a drop in the birthrate in Germany, the EU's most populous country.The increase was down to a moderate rise in the birth rate while the death rate had remained relatively constant, said Eurostat. The highest increase in the birth rate was an 0.8 per cent jump recorded in Lithuania, which amounted to 35,000 births. But its population continued to fall because the country recorded 44,000 deaths. In contrast, the population in France increased by 368 000 to 64,4 million people; in Spain by 545 000 to 45,8 million; and in Italy by 434 000 to 60,1 million. Britain's population increased 441 000 to 61,6 million.

Scotsman.com News

"The View from Europe

Published Date: 30 September 2008
EUROPE is getting bigger in more ways than one. Even if a newly right-wing Austria vetoes Turkish membership, the EU is still growing in terms of population. New data from Brussels shows that the union's population grew by 0.48 per cent last year – 2.39 million more people – and is now 497.5 million. Expect the commission to round that up to a crisp 500 million. That compares with the latest population estimate of 301 million for the United States."

FT.com | Brussels Blog

"EU population forecasts

The demographic forecasts contained in a new report from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency, are worth a good look. Everyone knows the EU’s rapidly ageing population and shrinking workforce are making its task of promoting prosperity and job growth ever more difficult. But we don’t often see the hard numbers behind the general trend.

What I found most striking were the predictions for the big EU-6. In terms of their current populations, these are Germany (82.2m people), France (61.9m), the UK (61.3m), Italy (59.5m), Spain (45.3m) and Poland (38.1m)."

For the complete report from the Telegraph.co.uk click on this link

Britain will be Europe's biggest country by 2060 with 77m people - by ames Kirkup

The UK population will rise by a quarter to 77 million in 2060, the European Commission said in a study of EU states population trends. That puts Britain on course to overtake Germany as the biggest country in the union. Germany's current population is 82 million, but the commission's analysts believe that a falling birth rate will reduce that to 71 million over the next half century. The EU's 27 members currently have a combined population of 495 million. The EU total will peak in 2035 at 521 million before falling back to 506 million in 2060.