Hungary among the fastest shrinking countries of the world
Quartz Media recently analysed some UN projections and summarised the results in an article. The sad news is that the fastest shrinking countries on earth are found in Eastern Europe. The potential demographic disaster must be stopped as soon as possible.
The population of the “top 10” countries are expected to shrink by 15% or even more by 2050.
Bulgaria is considered to be the world’s fastest shrinking country. Its population is expected to decrease from 7 million to 5.4 million. The country is followed by Latvia (-22%) and Moldova (-19%) on the podium.
| Country | 2017 (million) | 2050 (million) | % change |
| Bulgaria | 7.08 | 5.42 | -23 |
| Latvia | 1.95 | 1.52 | -22 |
| Moldova | 4.05 | 3.29 | -19 |
| Ukraine | 44.22 | 36.42 | -18 |
| Croatia | 4.19 | 3.46 | -17 |
| Lithuania | 2.89 | 2.41 | -17 |
| Romania | 19.68 | 16.40 | -17 |
| Serbia | 8.79 | 7.45 | -15 |
| Poland | 38.17 | 32.39 | -15 |
| Hungary | 9.72 | 8.28 | -15 |
We are not surprised to see Hungary on the list since we have shared several articles about the decreasing population of our country.
According to Tomas Sobotka, lead researcher at Wittgenstein Centre, most of the post-communist countries have already experienced population declines in the past decades.
The three main factors that contribute to the phenomenon are: falling fertility rates, massive out-migration and relatively high mortality.
While the number of births and deaths were steady in 2016, the net migration boosted Europe’s population by 1.5 million. Some people would suggest solving the problem by taking in more migrants, but as we know, the issue is more than controversial.
Political leaders from Hungary and Poland have recently declared that the EU’s migration policy has failed.
Source: https://qz.com/