Ireland registered the highest population growth among European Union (EU) member states between 1997 and 2007, according to figures from a newly-published yearbook by the EU statistics office Eurostat.
The population of Ireland grew 18 percent in the 10-year period, compared with an EU average growth rate of 3.4 percent, according to Eurostat Yearbook 2008, which was unveiled Monday.
Apart from Ireland, countries with high population growth rates were Cyprus (16.9 percent), Luxembourg (14.2 percent) and Spain (12.5 percent).
Population fell in eight member states, with the largest declines in Bulgaria (7.9 percent), Latvia (6.7 percent) and Lithuania (5.7 percent).
The total population of the 27 member states of the EU reached 495 million in 2007, compared with 479 million in 1997.
The EU growth of 3.4 percent paled in comparison with other regions of the world. The share of the EU in world population declined from 13.3 percent in 1960 to 7.5 percent in 2005.
In the same period, the world population more than doubled, from 3.0 billion in 1960 to 6.5 billion in 2005.
Source:Xinhua
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