A number of countries in Europe and the Balkans are experiencing significant population declines between 2014 and 2024. According to the business publication ceoworld.biz, Bulgaria is the leader in this process, having lost almost a quarter of its population (-22.5%). Then come Lithuania (-22.1%) and Latvia (-21.6%). They are followed by Ukraine (-19.5%), Serbia (-18.9%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (-18.2%).
The top ten also includes Croatia (-18%), Albania (-15.8%), Moldova and Romania (both -15.5%).
The main reasons: migration, falling birth rates and economic and social crises.
It is interesting that Bulgaria and the Baltic States, which are held up as “prosperous and flourishing”, have lost more population than Ukraine, where the war is in its fourth year. This also applies to neighboring Romania, which Moldova is trying to equal in its European aspirations.
