As fertility rates plunge across the EU, the impact of migration on demographics is becoming increasingly evident.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Since 2012, more people have been dying in the EU than have been born, and last year, new births reached their lowest point on record, at 3.46 million.
Although migration is indeed helping to keep demographic collapse at bay, figures circulating online are not always accurate.
Take this video shared by Tommy Robinson, a British far-right activist, which was watched nearly 700,000 times, claiming that nearly all population growth last year was driven by foreigners.
The video doesn’t cite sources, but data from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office can clear up a few things.
First of all, the majority of all births last year — about 70% — were to Irish citizens.
However, that rate is falling steeply and rapidly; it stood at 76% in 2022.
Then migration comes into play.
The latest estimates — April 2025 to April 2026 — say that there was a net flow of around 53,000 non-Irish migrants coming to the country, so around 72% of the total population growth.
At the same time, more Irish citizens left the country than those who arrived, with a net loss of around 5,000.
For context, Ireland’s population grew by nearly 67,000 people between April 2025 and April 2026, and about 28% of that growth came from “natural increase”, meaning there were almost 19,000 more births than deaths.
So migrant arrivals are significantly contributing to Ireland’s population growth.
That’s also been certified by Eurostat, which classified Ireland as a country where population growth is mainly due to net migration.
This aspect is even more pronounced in countries such as Spain, Portugal, the UK and France, where, Eurostat says, population growth last year was “only due to positive net migration” last year.
In no country surveyed by Eurostat is population growth happening only due to natural change.
