Cyprus has the highest proportion of migrants in EU

CYPRUS had the highest migratory flow of all EU countries in 2003, five times its natural birth rate, according to figures released by Eurostat. The island also had the second lowest death rate per 1,000 people.

According to the figures, the total population of Cyprus increased by 21.5 per cent last year, but only 3.6 per cent related to natural births, while the remaining 17.9 per cent was a result of immigration. The EU average increase in migrants was 3.6 per cent.

After Cyprus, Spain and Italy recorded the highest immigration figures with increases of 14.2 per cent and 8.9 per cent. Positive net migration was recorded in all member states, except Lithuania, which fell 1.8 per cent, Latvia and Poland, which both dropped 0.4 per cent and Estonia down 0.3 per cent.

On natural population increase, only Ireland and the Netherlands were ahead, with increases of 8.2 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively compared to the EU average of 0.4 per cent.

Since 1980, the annual number of deaths in the EU25 has been fairly stable at around 4.5 million, Eurostat said. The impact of slowing population growth has been compensated by decreasing mortality rates.

In 2003 a slight increase in the number of deaths per 1000 population in the EU25 was observed, from 9.8 per cent in 2002 to 9.9 per cent in 2003.

Among member states, the death rate ranged from 7.2 per cent in Ireland and 7.6 per cent in Cyprus to 13.9 per cent in Latvia and 13.5 per cent in Estonia.
On January 1, 2004, the population of the EU25 was 456.4 million. The ten new Member States added 74.1 million people to the EU15. The population of the EU25 increased by 1.9 million in 2003, mainly due to net migration of 1.7 million.

The EU25 now accounts for 7.2 per cent of the world’s population, far behind China’s 1.29 billion or 20.5 per cent of the world population but ahead of the United States with 292 million people or 4.6 per cent of the world’s population.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.