The European Union’s population grew to 512 million partly due to the amount of refugees entering the countries, Politico reported Monday.
The population grew by 1.5 million, reaching a total population of 511.8 million in January. There were 510.3 million people back in 2016, according to Eurostat, the EU’s official center for statistical research.
Germany and Sweden had the highest growth rates due to the large number of migrants seeking asylum. Sweden is considered one of the best countries to be an economic migrant, according to US News.
Germany currently has the highest population within the European Union, with 82.8 million residents. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for no maximum migrant quota for her re-election platform in September. The country’s Christian Social Union previously wanted to cap the number of migrants at 200,000 a year.
“It makes a difference whether there is peace in Syria or Iraq. One year there could be very few migrants, the next year more,” she said in 2016.
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