French President Emmanuel Macron this summer ended up in the middle of a political storm -- with accusations of "racism" -- for saying that women "with seven or eight children" are responsible for the current condition of the African continent, thus creating a challenge, according to Macron, that is "civilizational".
The United Nations states that Macron is right. According to the UN's annual demographic report, "World Population Prospects," one-sixth of the world's population currently lives in Africa. By 2050, the proportion will be one-quarter, and at the end of the century -- when Africa will have four billion people -- one-third.
In Africa today, there are four times more births than deaths. According to figures for 2017, the total fertility rate is 4.5 children per woman, against 1.6 in Europe. During the next thirty years, the population of Africa is expected to increase by one billion. It is not hard to imagine how mass illegal immigration will affect Europe through such unprecedented demographic pressure. African demography has already begun pressing on the "old continent".
When Germany recently opened its doors to over a million people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, supporters of open borders repeatedly said that a million migrants are nothing in a European population of 500 million people. That, however, was the wrong comparison. The right comparison is between recent arrivals and new births. In 2015 and 2016, 5.1 million children were born in Europe. In the same period, according to a Pew Research Center report, approximately 2.5 million migrants reached Europe. And, as many countries, such as France, refuse to list the new births according to ethnic origin, there is no way to know how many of Europe's births can be attributed to Muslim communities.
 In 2015 and 2016, approximately 2.5 million migrants reached Europe, according to a Pew Research Center report. Pictured: Migrants off the coast of Libya attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, on February 18, 2017. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) |
Other UN studies also report about European perspectives, when "Europe" means not only the EU but enlarged continent to the east. In 1950, Europeans numbered 549 million; in 2017, 742 million. In 2050 they are expected to number 715 million. In 2100 the number is projected to drop to 653 million. So, in 30 years, due to the demographic collapse, Europe will lose 30 million people and, by the end of the century, almost 100 million. "Birth control" has worked most effectively in Europe, which demographically did not need it, and worst in Africa, which did.
Within Europe, there will be countries that shrink and countries that grow. The growing ones will tell us what kind of continent it will be. Europe, with the addition of demographic pressure from Africa, will be dominated by Muslim majorities.
Europe is committing social euthanasia. Germany is projected to lose 11 million people; Bulgaria will go from 7 to 4 million; Estonia, from 1.3 million to 890 thousand; Greece, from 11 to 7 million; Italy from 59 to 47 million; Portugal from 10 to 6 million; Poland from 38 to 21 million, Romania from 19 to 12 million and Spain from 46 to 36 million. Russia is expected to shrink from 143 to 124 million.
Among countries with population growth, France is expected to grow from 64 to 74 million, and the UK from 66 to 80 million. Sweden is projected to grow from 9 million to 13 million, and Norway from 5 million to 8 million. Belgium's population of 11 million is expected to increase by 2 million. These five European countries are also among those with the highest proportion of Muslims.
In addition, last week a new Eurostat report related that the number of deaths in the "old continent" rose 5.7% in one year, due to a population that is aging, but that the demographic growth in high-density Islamic areas is tremendous:
"the highest rates of natural population growth were recorded in the eastern London regions of Hackney & Newham (14 per 1000 inhabitants) and Tower Hamlets (12 per 1000 inhabitants) and the north-eastern Parisian suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis (13 per 1000 inhabitants)".
The French economist Charles Gave recently predicted that France will have a Muslim majority by 2057 -- and this estimate did not even take into consideration the number of expected new migrants.
Last week, in the UK, the Office of National Statistics announced that this year, among newborn boys, Muhammad is one of the most popular names, and "by far the most popular if different spellings are accounted for". The same is true in the Netherlands' four biggest cities. In the capital of Norway, Oslo, Mohammed is the top name not only for newborn boys, but for men in the city overall. One would have to be blind not to understand the trend: "It's the demography, stupid".
No doubt, Africa's exploding population will try to reach the shores of a wealthy, senile Europe, which is already undergoing an internal demographic revolution. Europe, to retain its culture, will need to make hard-headed decisions, not just amuse itself to death. The question is: Will Europe protect its borders and civilization before it is submerged?
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
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