'After EU Accession, There Is Mass Youth Exodus in Baltic Countries.' WFT Fact-checked Voropai’s Claim

Voroppay discussed the youth exodus with Alexander Tishchenko, a national security expert, during a BelTA YouTube broadcast on October 16, 2024.

“And there are practically no young people left in the Baltics,” the host stated.

“...As an indicator of integration with Europe. What does it end with? A third of the population always departs. It’s simply a third of the population that leaves altogether. And who leaves? The youth does. Those who reproduce the population. The fact is that all this policy was built to extract this young labor force, yes, the productive one that generates ideas and results… This was the West’s policy — to pull reserves from Eastern Europe. Human resources first and foremost,”   Tishchenko explained.

Since joining the EU in 2004, Lithuania has seen roughly a quarter of its population leave, although some have returned. As a result, the country lost approximately 10% of its population by 2023 due to migration. Latvia also experienced an exodus of about one in ten people, while Estonia saw a 2% decrease.

The share of youth in the Baltic states has decreased over the past 18 years, but not as significantly as reported by BelTA. The earliest official EU data on youth is from 2006. At that time, Lithuanians aged 15-29 made up one-fifth of the total population, or nearly 695,000. By 2023, this number had dropped by a quarter, to about 431,000.

In Latvia, the youth population decreased from 498,000 to nearly 273,000 — over 40%. In Estonia, it fell from 295,000 to 208,000, roughly a third.

In Belarus, youth accounted for nearly 24% of the total population in 2006, or almost 2.34 million. By 2019, this figure dropped to 17%, or around 1.61 million. In 2020, it fell to 15%, or 1.46 million. This means that over 14 years, Belarus’ youth population decreased by a third.