The UNECE region now has a population of 1.3 billion, up 160 million from 1994, with a further increase of 40 million expected by 2050. Although 38 of the 56 countries in the region have a larger population today than in 1994, the other 18 countries, in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, have seen their respective populations decline over the same period.

The total fertility rate in the UNECE region is 1.69 children per woman of reproductive age, down from 1.83 in 2015. At the same time, the trend towards later child-bearing continues, with the mean age of women giving birth for the first time now being close to 30 years.

Since 2015, the average life expectancy in the UNECE region has risen from 74.7 years to 76.2 years for men and from 80.9 years to 82.0 years for women. Regional variations remain, however. In Central Asia, life expectancy remains below 75.0 years for women and below 70.0 years for men. And in some countries in Eastern Europe — such as Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine — women are outliving men by an average of nine years or more.

The population in the UNECE region continues to get older on average, with people 65 years and above accounting for 17.6 per cent of the region’s population, up from 15.2 per cent in 2015 and 12.4 per cent in 1994. Furthermore, the 65+ age group accounts for over 20 per cent of the population in 24 of the region’s 56 countries.

Between 2000 and 2020, the average age at which people exited the labour market increased from 60.2 years to 63.3 years for men and from 58.5 years to 62.5 years for women. Men continue to retire later than women, but the gender gap is narrowing.

The working-age population is shrinking everywhere in the region except in Central Asia, where it is still increasing and is expected to peak in 2040.

An average of 2.5 million people migrated to the UNECE region every year from 1994 to 2022, although there has been a sharp decrease since 2015, the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis, and net migration is currently at its lowest level since 1994. There is a considerable east–west divide, with many western countries experiencing positive net migration while many countries in the eastern part of the region are experiencing negative net migration. The three countries with the highest positive net migration since 2015 are the United States of America, the Russian Federation and Germany.

In the two decades from 2000 to 2020, the maternal mortality ratio in the UNECE region dropped by just over 45 per cent, from an average of 22 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to an average of 12 deaths per 100,000 live births 20 years later. That said, progress has slowed in a large part of the region, and the maternal mortality ratio increased between 2015 and 2020 in 18 of 52 countries for which data are available.

The median contraceptive prevalence (any method) among married or in-union women aged 15–49 in the UNECE region has increased only slightly since 2000, from 69.6 per cent to 70.6 per cent, while contraceptive prevalence has decreased in 12 countries in the region since 2015. In addition, more than half of the women in five countries — Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro and Tajikistan — do not use any form of contraception whatsoever.

Adolescent birth rates are generally declining across UNECE countries, with the average for the region dropping from 20 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 2000 to 16 in 2015 and just under 13 in 2020. There is wide variation across UNECE countries. In several high-income countries the adolescent birth rate is below 2 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19, while in Central Asia the average was 25 in 2020, and in some Eastern European countries rates are three to four times higher than the average for the region.

In 11 countries for which there are data — all in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — one in four women of reproductive age are unable to make autonomous decisions about access to sexual and reproductive health care, the use of contraceptives, or when and with whom to engage in sexual activity.

In 2022, only 28 of the UNECE region’s 56 countries reported having adopted policies requiring mandatory comprehensive sexuality education as part of their regular education curriculum or policy. Although this represents a 47 per cent increase from 2019 (19 countries), comprehensive sexuality education remains unavailable to young people in many countries.

Around 160,000 people were infected with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2022. This 49 per cent rise from 2010 was the largest increase recorded in any region in the world during this period.

Cervical cancer is the second-most-common cause of cancer-related mortality among women of reproductive age in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where women are far less likely to be vaccinated against, and tested for, cervical cancer than their counterparts in Western Europe.

Gender-based violence remains pervasive across the UNECE region. In Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, for example, recent surveys in selected countries suggested that 30 per cent of women had experienced some form of violence in the year prior to the survey. Worryingly, in half of countries in the region with data, the percentage of individuals who believe that it is justifiable for a man to beat his wife has increased over time, and young people are generally more likely to agree that such violence can be justifiable.

Although early marriage is uncommon in most countries in the UNECE region, it remains worryingly high in some countries, with more than 10 per cent of women aged 20–24 years saying theyr were married before the age of 18 in Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye.

Since 2015, in two-thirds of countries in the UNECE region with data there has been an increase in number of weeks for paid father-specific leave, with notable increases in Spain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, and Norway. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while fathers can generally take some time off after the birth of their child, many get less than 10 days and often not at full pay.