European Demographic Change and Welfare Challenges

Demographic challenges are increasingly becoming part of the political agenda in Europe. Using data from 31 European countries the chapter provides an overview of how changes in population structure and demographic processes are linked to political views and rhetoric about social policy at the start of the twenty-first century in Europe. Population development is analysed alongside views of governments on population growth and population policies. The chapter looks at the key population processes from three main angles: the objective situation; official views on the situation; and how European countries differ in their social policy reactions.

The results show that the consensus on the need for family policy in Europe is widespread. We found also clear evidence that attitudes towards population growth and respective policies tend to concur with the demographic situation. Concern about the population situation and the willingness to support population growth policies have developed simultaneously and become stronger in Europe. However we also saw that political rhetoric is not always tied to actual higher spending on families with children. An alternative solution to improve the structure of the population and increase population growth would be to increase immigration. We observed some liberalization of European political attitudes towards immigration from 2001 to 2011.