The rise of the far-right could speed up the population decline of Europe creating economic shocks including slower growth and soaring costs from pensions and elderly care, according to an article in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper.

While the continent’s native population is expected to fall sharply in an era of very low birth rates, inward immigration could help stem the decline, but closing borders would cut off that lifeline, says the piece.

The latest projections produced by Eurostat suggest that the EU’s population will be 6% smaller by 2100 based on current trends – falling to 419 million, from 447 million today.

But, without immigration, the agency projects a population decline of more than a third, to 295 million by 2100. This assumes immigration continues at the present level for the next 75 years which is not guaranteed as most people now live in countries with below replacement level fertility rates.

At the same time, experts stress that immigration is not a silver bullet for Europe’s demographic challenges, instead suggesting it is a partial solution, or at least a way to ease the transition to an older society.

“Increasing immigration levels will not solve these demographic problems on their own – the levels required to do so would be very large, and there are only so many migrants who are willing to move,” said John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform thinktank.