Eastern EU and the Balkans, where workers left for the West: 28% fewer people aged 20–39 than in 1985
39 million then, 28.1 million in 2025, 21.8 million by 2050 in the UN medium variant. Turkey had the most young adults in 2020, 27.4 million; 21.1 million will be left by 2050.
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People who move abroad to work are mostly young. Where people moved from to Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain in recent decades, there are fewer and fewer young adults: few children were born there from the 1990s.
People aged 20–39, summed over 17 countries. Solid line: UN estimates; dashed: the medium variant. The dot is the 1985 peak.
- 17 eastern EU and Balkan countries: people aged 20–39 million
1985: 39; 2025: 28.1; 2050: 21.8
- Turkey: people aged 20–39 million
2020: 27.4; 2050: 21.1
World Population Prospects 2024, ages 20–39 in five-year groups: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Slovenia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo. Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are left out: their loss after 2022 is largely the war.
The 2025 figure is already a UN projection from 2023 estimates. The projection counts those who leave: part of the loss is the moves West themselves.
A question for this picture
And in all of Europe? Fewer women aged 20–39 than in 1990, and none can be added before 2045.