Has the birthrate in European countries come down or declining?

 The birthrate in European countries has been declining in recent years. According to Eurostat data, the birth rate across the European Union hit a 60-year low of 4 million births in 2020, with an average of 1.5 births per person

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. However, there has been a slight increase in the number of births in the EU since 2020, with 4.09 million babies born in 2021, marking the first increase in the number of births since 2016

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.The total fertility rate, which is the average number of children a woman is projected to have over her lifetime, has also been declining in Europe. It steadily declined from the mid-1960s through to the turn of the century in the EU Member States. However, at the beginning of this development stopped in 2010 and a subsequent decline was observed to a relative low in 2013, followed by a slight increase in 2016 and another decrease until 2020. In 2021, the total fertility rate in the EU was 1.53 live births per woman, a small increase compared with 2020

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.France had the highest fertility rate in Europe in 2021, with 1.84 live births per woman, while Malta had the lowest at 1.13 live births per woman

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. The current birth rate for Europe in 2023 is 9.805 births per 1000 people, a 5.94% decline from 2022

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.Many European countries have experienced record declines in their birth rates, including Scandinavia. According to research from Human Reproduction that was published in the BBC, Europe witnessed a 14 percent decline in its overall birth rate in 2021. For many countries, that year marked several months of COVID restrictions such as lockdowns

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.In conclusion, the birthrate in European countries has been declining in recent years, but there has been a slight increase in the number of births in the EU since 2020. The total fertility rate has also been declining, with France having the highest fertility rate in Europe in 2021 and Malta having the lowest.

Citations:

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/eur/europe/birth-rate

[2] https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-baby-birthrate-children-increase/

[3] https://cne.news/article/2655-sweden-joins-other-european-countries-in-birth-rate-decline

[4] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/DDN-20230309-1

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Fertility_statistics

[6] https://www.statista.com/statistics/612074/fertility-rates-in-european-countries/

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210323-2

[8] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/eur/europe/fertility-rate

[9] https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/17/fertility-in-europe-which-countries-have-the-highest-and-lowest-numbers-of-live-births-per

[10] https://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/data/europe-developed-countries/fertility-indicators/

[11] https://www.courthousenews.com/eu-records-lowest-birthrate-amid-a-steady-60-year-decline/

[12] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=EU

[13] https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/fertility-rates-in-the-eu-are-plummeting-with-few-exceptions/

[14] https://unric.org/en/family-day-nordic-fertility-rates-in-steady-decline/

[15] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/23/baby-crisis-europe-brink-depopulation-disaster

[16] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63253517