Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
F2: Population and migration
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
Migration statistics and demographic statistics in general are widely used to plan actions, evaluate programmes and monitor trends in a number of social and economic policy fields. They play an important role in areas such as:
Migrant population indicators provide insights on the structure by age and sex of migrant population by citizenship and country of birth, median age of migrant population by citizenship and country of birth as well as on total net migration.
The following indicators are available:
a) Proportion of population by age group, sex and citizenship
This indicator shows the structure by age and sex on 1 January of the selected group of citizenship.
The expression for the proportion of the population for a given citizenship is:
with being the number of residents with citizenship CTZ of sex “s” belonging to age group “a” on 1 January of year t and PtCTZ being the total resident population with citizenship CTZ on 1 January of year t.
Note: the residents with unknown citizenship are proportionally redistributed among groups of (known) citizenship before computing this indicator.
b) Proportion of population by age group, sex and country of birth
This indicator shows the structure by age and sex on 1 January of the selected group of country of birth.
The expression for the proportion of the population for a given citizenship is:
with being the number of residents with country of birth COB of sex “s” belonging to age group “a” on 1 January of year t and PtCOB being the total resident population with citizenship COB on 1 January of year t.
Note: the residents with unknown country of birth are proportionally redistributed among groups of (known) country of birth before computing this indicator.
c) Median age of residents by sex and citizenship
For each group of citizenship “CTZ”, calculation of the median age is based on the following method. Firstly, the age group [xl, xu] in which the half of the total population of a given group of citizenship (PCTZt,half = PCTZt/2) falls is identified.
The median age is then estimated by the following formula:
where is the population size of the age group where the
is located, (xu - xl) is the width of this age group, and
is the sum of the population for all ages x strictly lower than xl.
Note: the residents with unknown country of birth are proportionally redistributed among groups of (known) country of birth before computing this indicator.
d) Median age of residents by sex and country of birth
For each group of country of birth “COB”, calculation of the median age is based on the following method. Firstly, the age group [xl, xu] in which the half of the total population of a given group of country of birth (PCOBt,half = PCOBt/2) falls is identified.
The median age is then estimated by the following formula:
where is the population size of the age group where the
is located, (xu - xl) is the width of this age group, and
is the sum of the population for all ages x strictly lower than xl.
Note: the residents with unknown country of birth are proportionally redistributed among groups of (known) country of birth before computing this indicator.
e) Net migration by age and sex
Net Migration t,x,d = It,x,d - Et,x,d
with It,x,d being the total number of immigrants aged x and age definition d (age in completed or age reached during the year) and Et,x,d being the total number of emigrants aged x and age definition d during year t, for any age between 0 and 100_max. The total number of immigrants and emigrants include all the persons having migrated during the year whatever their citizenship or country of birth.
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Percentage, year or number
Calendar year
Accuracy of EU-27 aggregate depends on the accuracy of individual EU countries. For more details, please see national metadata linked inside the Eurostat metadata on population and Eurostat metadata on International Migration statistics.
Indicators are calculated by Eurostat, based on data reported by the countries and available in the following dissemination tables:
Every year.
Migrant population indicators are usually updated on a yearly basis in February/March with a new reference year. Reference year means calendar year. Ad-hoc revisions happen when significant revisions of source statistics are transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes.
T + 15 months
Data are presented for all EU and EFTA countries and for EU-27 aggregate.
Some data on net migration are also available for North Macedonia and Montenegro.
The recommended definition of the 'population' for the statistics on population reported by countries following EU legislation in the domain is the 'usually resident population' meaning all the persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time. Where the circumstances described above cannot be established, 'usual residence' can be taken to mean the place of legal or registered residence.
Proportion by age and sex and median age indicators: from 2022 onwards.
Net migration indicator: from 2013 onwards.
Comparability over time could be disturbed by breaks in data series. The breaks in population and migration series due to methodological, data processing changes or revisions in population counts reported by the countries are documented in Eurostat’s database with the flag b (break in series).
Articles on Eurostat's Statistics Explained website: Migration and migrant population statistics
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