European Population Conference 2005 - Demographic challenges for social cohesion
Strasbourg (France), 7-8 April 2005

Press conference on 7 April 2005

Presentation of the 2004 edition of the report “Recent demographic developments in Europe”: Declining population growth/ ageing population/ lower fertility

The overall rate of European population growth is 0.23% resulting in a growth of 1.9 million people living in Europe in the year 2003. These are the latest figures from the 2004 edition of the report on “Recent demographic developments in Europe”, that was presented to the press on 7 April in Strasbourg. The natural population growth, said Charlotte Höhn, President of the Council of Europe´s European Population Committee and editor of this report, is negative: 63 000 more people died in 2003 than were born. The increase of 1.9 million is due to immigration.

The demographic situation in the 46 Council of Europe member states is very variable, continued Höhn. In Western European countries ageing is the main problem. In contrast to that, the Central and Eastern European countries suffer from an even lower fertility rate (especially since 1990/1991), but also from a lower life expectancy.

The German demographer pointed out that European policy was already late, and that demographic changes did not happen from one day to the other, but within a period of two, three or more decades.

“Painful political decisions have to be taken – people have to work longer in the future,” explained Höhn. Additionally, she said, the low fertility rate would also be linked to major economic problems. If people were unemployed they would not tend to found a family.

Raimondo Cagiano Azevedo, General Rapporteur and former President of the European Population Committee, has expectations for a fruitful dialogue between the 300 present scientists and politicians during the 5th Council of Europe conference on “Demographic challenges for social cohesion” on 7 and 8 April 2005. The conclusion will be presented on Friday afternoon.