Romania was among the European countries with the steepest population decline last year, according to EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

The European Union’s population reached 510.1 million at the beginning of the year, up from 508.3 million on January 1, 2015.

Romania was the seventh country in the EU by the size of its population, with 19.76 million people at January 1, 2016, down from 19.87 million in January 2015. Romania lost 5.6 people for each 1,000 citizens it had at the beginning of 2015.

Latvia had the biggest decline (-8.7 per mille), followed by Croatia (-8.2), Bulgaria (-6.7), and Greece (-6.0).

Romania’s population will reach 14-15 million inhabitants in the next 30-40 years based on pessimistic scenarios, said Tudorel Andrei, president of the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Working population will decrease by 44% by 2060, reaching about 7.51 million people, according to an INS study.

A study made by the United Nations (UN) also shows that Romania will register a population decline of 22.1% by 2050.

editor@romania-insider.com