Newly released European Union figures show deaths surpassed births in 2017 among Europe's native population.

The office Eurostat released the report ahead of World Population Day on Wednesday, reported LifeSiteNews.

The EU saw 5.3 million deaths and 5.1 million births in 2017 while the overall population increased from 511.5 million to 512.6 million due to immigration.

The report found Ireland retained the highest birth rate and lowest death rate in the EU, making its natural population growth five times higher than the EU’s average. Births also continued to outnumber deaths in Cyprus, Luxembourg, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Brian Stewart writes at The Federalist that Europe has been "importing a considerable mass of people on the unspoken assumption that more diversity in a society will invariably breed ever more tolerance."

"Worse, this massive influx has been accompanied by an austere and often fervent Islamic piety; and this has been doubly dangerous," he said.

Stewart noted that after the 7/7 bombings in London, polls found 68 percent of British Muslims believe that British citizens who "insult Islam" should be arrested and prosecuted.

Europeans, he said, must "insist that, despite the sins of their past, they have rights as well as duties in the present."

"They could abandon their disinclination to power that has become little more than a disinclination to history. They might even consider crediting certain forms of Christianity for their contributions to civilization."