On 1 January 2026, the EU’s population was estimated at 452.0 million people, an increase of 706,000 compared with the previous year. This marks the fifth consecutive year of population growth in the EU, following the decline recorded in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2012, the EU’s negative natural population change, meaning more deaths than births, has been offset by positive net migration.
These figures come from population data published today by Eurostat.
As of 1 January 2026, the EU population was 8.0 million higher than in 2016 and 16.0 million higher than in 2006.
Looking at the longer term, the EU population increased by 97.5 million people between 1960, when it stood at 354.5 million, and 2026, when it reached 452.0 million. At the same time, the pace of population growth has slowed over the past decades. On average, the population rose by 3.0 million people per year during the 1960s and by 0.6 million per year during the 2010s.
Germany at 83.5 million, Malta at 0.6 million
On 1 January 2026, the population of EU countries ranged between 83.5 million in Germany and 0.6 million in Malta. The five most populous countries accounted for two thirds of the EU’s total population:
- Germany (18.5% of the EU population)
- France (15.3%)
- Italy (13.0%)
- Spain (11.0%)
- Poland (8.0%)
Between 1 January 2025 and 1 January 2026, the population increased in 16 EU countries. The highest growth rates were recorded in Malta, with a crude rate of total population change of +24.1 per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Cyprus (+13.7) and Luxembourg (+13.1). The sharpest declines were recorded in Latvia (-8.3 per 1,000 inhabitants), Estonia (-6.8) and Hungary (-5.4).
