At the beginning of our era, Europe was, by modern standards, a fairly sparsely populated continent. And this despite the fact that some of its countries, especially Greece and the Roman Empire, formed the center of world civilization, culture and science.
The population of Europe for a long time grew very slowly, which was to blame for the endless wars, short life expectancy and high child mortality. Of course, the level of medicine of those times was generally not very high, in addition, the services of qualified doctors were usually available primarily to wealthy people, which contributed to the overall picture.
Scientists were able to calculate the demographic data of the European continent 2-3 thousand years ago. According to this information, about 400 million people lived on this continent by 400
BC . After another 200 years, this figure increased by only 11 million. Thus, in those days, the increase was only 5-6 million people per century. By the time of the birth of Christ, the population of Europe reached 42,000,000. During the heyday of the power of the Roman Empire, this growth slows down. And by the time of the collapse of this state, the continent was in a demographic catastrophe associated with a decline in the population, to a large extent due to fierce wars. The population of Europe in those days was gradually declining. The situation stabilized only two centuries after the
fall of the Roman Empire. Since then, demography has been slowly but steadily growing.
In the nineteenth century, the population of European countries, despite all the socio-economic problems characteristic of that time, almost doubled and amounted to 383 million by the end of the century (against 195 million at the beginning of the century). Its growth was slowed by demographic losses in the terrible meat grinder of the First World War, after which the continent was struck by the epidemic of the Spaniard, who took the lives of 50,000,000 to 90,000,000 people worldwide.
Demographic growth continued on the continent over the next 20 years, giving the continent another 70 million people. It slowed down due to huge casualties in World War II. But after some time, in the 60s, the so-called “baby boom” began. This coincided with a revision of traditional values. However, already in the seventies, the birth rate begins to decline sharply. And in the 90s, in almost all European countries, mortality began to exceed fertility. However, life expectancy did not stop increasing.
Now the population of foreign Europe is approximately 830 million people. And in almost all its countries, the birth rate is much lower than the level of natural reproduction. The number of marriages is decreasing, and the number of divorces is steadily growing. More often, children are born out of wedlock, and in some countries (Estonia, the Scandinavian countries, eastern Germany) the number of “fatherless” is at least half of all newborns.
As for the level of fertility, only in Albania, Ireland and Iceland does this indicator still stand at the level of population reproduction. In other countries, every woman, on average, gives birth to less than two children. The rejection of traditional values and the principle of “career first, then family” play a role here. In general, the indigenous population of Europe is dying out, and this process, according to experts, can no longer be stopped. Therefore, these demographic losses are offset by immigration from non-white countries. Most of the "new Europeans" are Muslims from the Maghreb, Africa, Arab states and Turkey. Many believe that thanks to such massive immigration, Europe will become the Islamic continent in the middle of this century. This opinion is justified by statistics, because in general Muslim women give birth to much more children than Germans, English women or French women. Therefore, in the next few decades, Europe will already be a completely different continent.