Statistics in Focus: Population and social conditions. Women and men migrating to and from the European Union.

Abstract

Immigration into the European Union has been a major source of population growth over the 1990s. Over the period 1995 to 1999, net inward migration added around 0.2% a year to the resident population in the Union (Fig. 1), which was only slightly less than the overall annual increase in population over the period (0.25%). As the growth of working-age population resident in the EU slows down and comes to a halt at the end of the present decade, immigration could assume increasing importance as a means of avoiding a contraction in the EU's labour force in future years. This gives added relevance to examining the scale of migration flows as they affect different Member States and the characteristics of the women and men coming to settle and work in the Union.