Luxembourg is set to experience the strongest population growth of any EU country by the end of the century, according to a report from the bloc’s official statistics agency on Thursday.
The Grand Duchy’s population is expected to expand from over 645,000 in 2022 to more than 997,000 by 2100, an increase of 54.5%, a study on population projections across the EU by Eurostat concluded.
By mid-century, Luxembourg’s population is expected to rise to just under 900,000, before growth slows, the study indicated.
The projected trends for population growth mirror those of recent years, with census figures from 2023 showing that the country’s overall population expanded at more than 15 times the rate of the EU as a whole in the decade from 2011.
Luxembourg’s predicted population growth is in stark contrast to the majority of EU countries, of which 15 are expected to see their population decline by the end of the century. Across the EU as a whole, the population is set to drop by over 27 million over the same period.
Luxembourg will no longer have one of the EU’s youngest populations as the century progresses, Eurostat predicts, with the average age of a resident in the Grand Duchy set to jump from 39 in 2022 to 50 by 2100.
Along with Malta, the country is also set to see the largest drop in its share of the working-age population – defined by Eurostat as those aged 15 to 64 – which is expected to decline by almost 15% from 2022 to 2100.
By the end of the century, the old-age dependency ratio is projected to be higher than 50% for every single EU country, meaning that there will be less than two people of working age for each person aged 65 and over.
There will be no change to the largest EU countries by population from the present ranking, according to the data, with Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland set to remain the biggest countries by 2100.