Demographic change in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: trends, determinants and challenges

We provide a broad overview of population changes in Central and Eastern Europe during the last three decades. We review the transformation towards lower and later fertility and smaller family size, recent improvements in mortality and high rates of outmigration to richer regions in Europe. Trends in fertility, mortality and migration since the 1990s often showed large fluctuations and reversals, reacting rapidly to changing external conditions. The region has undergone huge differentiation in its population trends and patterns, especially in mortality and migration. Most countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe still experience high mortality rates coupled with strong outmigration, resulting in rapidly declining population, falling numbers of births and challenging demographic and economic prospects. In contrast, Central European countries have seen large mortality improvements and slowing outmigration coupled with rising immigration rates, putting them on a more sustainable demographic trajectory in the long term.