Fertility rates are down in most places in Europe, more and more people are reaching retirement age and all nations face a growing number of immigrants. Europe's changing demography poses major challenges - not only for the social security systems. Based on a system of statistical indicators, this present study is a comparative analysis and assessment of the demographic and economic development of 285 regions from all 27 EU member states as well as of non-EU members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

The cross-country comparison shows what demographic trends must be anticipated and how well the societies from Iceland to Greece, from Finland to Italy are prepared for the coming changes: How they are able to integrate their immigrants or reform their educational systems, how they deal with the growingly depopulated regions and what family policies they have put in place.

This unique report on Europe's demographic future with many striking maps and graphs provides a comprehensive, indispensable illustration of how demographic change matters for the regions of Europe and what the nations and regions can learn from each other.

''Demography is the backbone for understanding social change, because in the end it is the people and their changing compositions that cause such change. This book provides a highly welcome and accessible illustration of how demographic change matters for the regions of Europe.''

Wolfgang Lutz - Leader, World Population Program of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria