Population decline in the post-communist countries of the European Union

Abstract

The European Union includes 11 post-communist countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). The population of this group of countries has fallen by 7% since 1989, whereas that of the rest of the EU has risen by 13%. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, these countries had younger populations than the rest of the EU, but they are now ageing due to low fertility and mass emigration of young people.