Crude rate of net migration and demographic balance
- Eurostat dataset
- demo_gind
- Reference period
- 2025
- Unit of measure
- per 1 000 inhabitants
Key estimates
- EU aggregate (2025): 4.60 per 1 000 inhabitants.
- Highest value: Georgia at 63.6 per 1 000 inhabitants; lowest: Moldova at -16.7 per 1 000 inhabitants.
- Cross-country mean 5.20 per 1 000 inhabitants, standard deviation 10.9, coefficient of variation 209.4% across 43 reporting countries.
- Aggregate change 2015→2025: -269.3% on a constant panel of 41 countries.
Which populations are still growing, and why? Eurostat dataset demo_gind reports crude rate of net migration and demographic balance for 43 reporting countries, with 2025 as the most recent period carrying broad coverage. The European aggregate stands at 4.60 per 1 000 inhabitants. With fertility below replacement everywhere, net migration determines whether national populations grow or shrink.
The five highest values in 2025 are recorded by Georgia (63.6), Malta (23.9), Monaco (12.0), Spain (11.8), Cyprus (11.3), all expressed in per 1 000 inhabitants. At the opposite end of the distribution sit Moldova (-16.7), Albania (-12.1), Estonia (-2.10), Montenegro (-1.50), Latvia (-0.70). while the median country reports 4.60 per 1 000 inhabitants against a mean of 5.20 per 1 000 inhabitants.
Dispersion is wide: the standard deviation across countries is 10.9 per 1 000 inhabitants, giving a coefficient of variation of 209.4%. The mean sits above the median, which indicates that the distribution is pulled by the upper tail rather than being symmetric. Any European average quoted for this indicator therefore describes a synthetic country that few Member States resemble.
Between 2015 and 2025 the summed value across the 41 countries reporting in both periods moved by -269.3%. The largest relative increases are observed in Slovenia (+1900.0%), Italy (+900.0%), Ireland (+235.7%); the largest decreases, or the smallest increases, in Spain (-11900.0%), Cyprus (-2360.0%), Portugal (-2166.7%). Because the panel is held constant, this change is not an artefact of countries entering or leaving the sample.
This indicator has no normatively preferred direction; its analytical value lies in the structure of the distribution and in how national positions move relative to each other over time. The estimates above are reproducible: the dataset identifier, filter dimensions and reference period are stated in the methodological note, and the series can be re-downloaded from the Eurostat dissemination API at any time.
Methodological note
Source: Eurostat, dataset demo_gind ('Population change - Demographic balance and crude rates at national level'), extracted from the Eurostat dissemination API (JSON-stat 2.0) on the dataset update of 2026-07-21. Filter dimensions: indic_de=CNMIGRATRT. Unit of measure: per 1 000 inhabitants. Reference period: 2025. Geographic perimeter: national reporting units with two-character geo codes (43 countries with a non-missing observation); European and euro-area aggregates are excluded from the cross-country statistics and reported separately. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, population standard deviation, coefficient of variation) are computed unweighted over reporting countries. Change over time is computed on a constant panel: only countries with a non-missing observation in both the base and the reference period enter the calculation, which removes composition effects but may differ from the officially published aggregate. No imputation, seasonal adjustment or re-scaling has been applied beyond what Eurostat performs at source. Flagged provisional and estimated observations are retained as published.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser.