The European statistics office publication on “youths and children in the EU” shows that in 2014 children under 15 represented 14.6 percent of the Portuguese population, slightly lower than the European average of 15.6 percent, but by 2025 Portugal is expected to see the second largest fall in the percentage of children in the total population (a reduction of 3.1 percentage points), falling to the lowest level of the Union’s 28 member states.
In general, the proportion of children in the total EU population will drop over the coming years, but much more gently than in Portugal, slipping from 15.3 percent in 2014 to 15.0 percent in 2050.
The country with the highest proportion of children in 2014 was Ireland (22.0 percent), followed by France (18.6 percent) and the United Kingdom (17.6 percent).