The demographic of the 27 European member states is rapidly changing and becoming more diverse, says a new study by Eurostat. Sixty years ago the number of births rose sharply and remained high for about 20 to 30 years. Now the first of those baby-boomers, have reached the age of 60 and have started retiring. This marks a turning point in the demographic development of the European Union and makes it all the more important to consider the policy responses that are required by this major change. The EU is facing challenges on issues like sustainable public finances, increasing productivity and improving support for families. Major reforms and decisive action are necessary to meet these challenges.

In 2006 the European Commission announced that it would hold a European Forum on Demography every two years to analyse the latest demographic developments and to review where the European Union and the Member States stand in responding to demographic change.

Here are just some of the latest trends detected :

Fertility is slightly on the rise, the average is approaching 1.6 children per woman even if women are postponing births to a later age in life.

Life expectancy is also continuing to rise in the EU, especially through gains at older ages. People also seem to be living longer healthy lives. The median age of the EU-27 population was 40.9 years. This means that half the EU-27 population today is aged 40.9 years or over. The median age of the population in the member states ranged from 34.3 years in Ireland and 38.9 years in Luxembourg to 44.2 years in Germany.

Regarding the formation of families, it comes as no great surprise that latest figures show that there were 2.4 million marriages and 1.2 million divorces in the EU-27, the most divorces took place in Belgium.

The proportion of live births outside marriage continues to increase in the EU, signalling new patterns of family formation.

Extra-marital births have been increasing in almost every country in EU-27, and in some member states, mostly in northern Europe, the majority of live births are now outside marriage

The study also looked at migration patterns in and into the EU. In recent years, non-EU citizens have been joining EU countries at a rate of 1 to 2 million per year and intra-EU mobility has also increased. By 2008, 12.7% of EU-27 residents aged 15-74 were foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. By 2060, the proportion is projected to double and reach over 25%.

Interestingly, a new group of mobile Europeans is emerging: they tend to be younger and better educated than the average in the host country; and they often move between countries for short periods of time.

Click here for the full study.