BRUSSELS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Eurostat on Monday said in a press release that the population of the European Union (EU) was estimated at 511.8 million on January 1, 2017 due to net migration.
According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, during the year of 2016, 18 EU members witnessed population increases, while 10 members witnessed population decreases.
The largest increase was recorded in Luxembourg which was 19.8 per 1,000 residents, according to the data. Sweden's 14.5 per 1,000 residents and Malta's 13.8 per 1,000 residents ranked the second and the third.
Malta's population grew by 5,600 throughout 2016, and the country's total population now stands at around 440,400.
On the contrary, Lithuania saw the sharpest decreases of 14.2 per 1,000 residents, the data showed. It was followed by Latvia's 9.6 per 1,000 residents and Croatia's 8.7 per 1,000 residents.
According to Eurostat, the population of EU on January 1, 2017 was 1.5 million more than that of January 1, 2016.
However, during the year of 2016, there were as many births as deaths, said Eurostat, meaning that the increase was due to net migration.
The data showed that Germany was the most populated in the EU with 82.8 million residents on January 1, 2017. It was followed by France's 67.0 million and Britain's 65.8 million.
