Bulgaria had the fourth largest decrease in its population in the EU last year.

According to the latest figures of Eurostat released on Friday, the population of Bulgaria dropped by 6.7 %, preceded only by Lithuania (11.3 %), Latvia (8.7 %) and Croatia (8.2 %).

Bulgaria was one of the eleven member states recording decrease in their population. The remaining seventeen member states registered increase in their population.

The highest increase was registered in Luxembourg (23.3 % per 1000 residents), followed by Austria (14.4 %), Germany (11.8%), Malta (11.7 %) and Sweden (10.6 %).

Overall, the population of the EU increased by nearly two million people last year, which represented a growth of 3.5 % compared to the previous year.

On the first day of this year the population of the EU stood at 510.1 million people.

Nearly 5.1 million babies were born last year, which represented a decrease of 40 000 compared to 2014.

The highest crude birth rate was registered in Ireland (14.2 per 1000 residents), followed by France, the UK and Sweden.

The lowest crude birth rate was recorded in Italy (8 %), followed by Portugal and Greece.

Slightly more than 5.2 million deaths occurred last year, which represented an increase of 286 000 compared to 2014.

Bulgaria had the highest crude death rate (15.3 per 1000 residents), followed by Latvia and Lithuania.

The lowest crude death rate was registered in Ireland (6.4 %), followed by Cyprus and Luxembourg.

For the first time ever, the EU recorded a negative natural change of its population. Net migration was the main factor behind the increase in population.

Germany continued to have the largest population in the EU - 82.2 million people, accounting for 16.1 % of the total EU population.

With its 66.7 million people, France had the second largest population in the EU, followed by the UK (65.3 million) and Italy (60.7 million). Together the four countries accounted for more than half of the EU's total population.

On the first day of this year, Bulgaria's population stood at 7 153 800 people, which as share of the total EU population represented 1.4 %.