Photo: Dragan Gojic

The UN’s Population Division has released projections that say several Balkans states can expect worrying declines in their populations over the next few decades.

“Several countries are expected to see their populations decline by more than 15 per cent by 2050, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and the United States Virgin Islands,” the report published on June 21 said.

The report predicted that Bulgaria’s population will fall from around 7 million people in 2017 to 5.4 million in 2050, while Croatia’s will fall from around 4 million to 3.4 million.

Romania can expect a decline in population from 19.6 million this year to 16.4 million in 2050. Serbia will fall from 8.7 million people to 7.4 million.

The UN Population Division also said a decline of 15 per cent is expected in Moldova, whose current population of 4 million of people is expected to drop to 3.2 million in 2050.

“At about 70 or 71 years, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine have the lowest levels of life expectancy at birth in Europe,” it added.

The report highlighted that Bosnia, by contrast, can expect a marginal increase in its population from 3,507,000 in 2017 to 3,508,000 people in 2050.

Macedonia, however, will fall from 2.1 million to 1.9 million people, and Montenegro from 629,000 in 2017 to 588,000 in 2050.

The report did not include information about Kosovo.

Overall, it said the world’s population will increase sharply. “The current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report being launched today. With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue, even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline,” the report concluded.