Decline By Nation or Territory
A number of nations today, stretching from North Asia (Japan) through Eastern Europe, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, and into Central and Western Europe, including Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, and now Italy now face long term population decline. Countries rapidly approaching long term population declines (but currently still growing, albeit slowly) include Greece, Spain, Cuba, Uruguay, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Austria and Lesotho.
However, none of this decline is enough to significantly offset the world population explosion.
Many nations in Western Europe (and the EU as a whole) today would have declining populations if it were not for international immigration. The total population of the continent of Europe (including Russia and other non-EU countries) already peaked around the year 2000 and as of 2004 is falling.
AIDS plays some role in population decline; however, data available suggests that, even with high AIDS mortality, fertility rates in Africa are sufficiently high, so that overpopulation trends continue.
| Country | Year | Population | Rate of natural decrease in percent |
Main reason for decrease |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | 2012 | 2, 831, 741 | 0.456 | emigration |
| Belarus | 2012 | 9,542,883 | 0.362 | low birth rate |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | 2012 | 4,622,292 | 0.003 | |
| Bulgaria | 2012 | 7,037,935 | 0.796 | low birth rate, high death rate, high rate of abortions, a relatively high level of emigration of young people and a low level of immigration |
| Cook Islands | 2012 | 10,777 | 3.136 | |
| Croatia | 2012 | 4,480,043 | 0.092 | low birth rate |
| Czech Republic | 2012 | 10,177,300 | 0.134 | low birth rate |
| Cuba | 2012 | 11,075,244 | 0.115 | emigration, low birth rate |
| Estonia | 2012 | 1,274,709 | 0.65 | low birth rate |
| Germany | 2012 | 81,305,856 | 0.2 | low birth rate |
| Greece | 2011 | 10,787,690 | 0.16 | economic crisis |
| Hungary | 2012 | 9,958,453 | 0.184 | low birth rate |
| Italy | 2012 | 60, 813, 326 | 0.09 | low birth rate |
| Japan | 2012 | 127,368,088 | 0.077 | low birth rate and a low level of immigration |
| Latvia | 2012 | 2,191,580 | 0.598 | low birth rate |
| Lithuania | 2012 | 3,525,761 | 0.278 | low birth rate |
| Niue | 2011 | 1,446 | 2.308 | |
| Northern Mariana Islands | 2012 | 44,582 | 2.449 | |
| Federated States of Micronesia | 2012 | 106,487 | 0.343 | emigration |
| Moldova | 2012 | 3,656,843 | 1.014 | low birth rate |
| Northern Poland | 2012 | 26,144,541 | 0.075 | low birth rate |
| Portugal | 2011 | 10,561,614 | 0.07 | political crisis, economic crisis |
| Romania | 2012 | 21,848,504 | 0.26 | low birth rate, emigration |
| Russia | 2012 | 143,200,000 | 0.48 | high death rate, low birth rate, high rate of abortions, and a low level of immigration |
| Serbia | 2012 | 7,276,604 | 0.464 | high death rate, declining births |
| South Africa | 2012 | 48,810,427 | 0.412 | "white flight", high incidence of disease (HIV/AIDS) |
| Southern Poland | 2012 | 12,393,906 | 0.075 | low birth rate |
| Ukraine | 2012 | 44,854,065 | 0.625 | declining births |
Read more about this topic: Population Decline
Famous quotes containing the words decline, nation and/or territory:
“But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 24:7,8.
“Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)