CYPRIOT men and women live longer than those in many EU countries and infant mortality on the island is also much lower than in several European countries.
According to the results of the Eurostat demographic report for 2001, Cypriot women – with a life expectancy of 80.4 years – live longer than their counterparts in Denmark, Portugal, the UK and Ireland, which has the lowest life expectancy among women at 78.5 years. Women in France live the longest at 83 years.
Cypriot men (life expectancy 75.3) can expect to live longer than their counterparts in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal, Germany and Finland. Ireland again has the lowest life expectancy for men at 73 years while men live longer in Sweden, with an expectancy of 77.5 years.
Infant mortality in Cyprus is also relatively low, with 4.9 deaths per 1,000 births compared to 5.0 in Belgium, 5.9 in Greece, 5.8 in Ireland, 5.9 in Luxembourg, 5.3 in the Netherlands, 5.0 in Portugal and 5.5 in the UK. Finland and Sweden have the lowest infant mortality rate at 3.2 per thousand births.
The Eurostat report also said Cyprus had the highest number of marriages in the EU, with 14.4 marriages per thousand of population or 11,000 weddings last year. However, it is not clear if the statistics take account the hundreds of couples who get married in Cyprus during their holidays. The lowest number of weddings in the EU is four per thousand in Sweden. The highest in EU countries was 6.6 per thousand in Denmark.
Cyprus registered 1,400 divorces in 2001, some 1.8 divorces per thousand of population, which was lower than all EU countries except Greece at 0.9 per cent. Most EU countries registered divorces running at over two per thousand of population.
Like their EU counterparts, Cypriot women are also having fewer children. According to the statistics, in 2001the average Cypriot women had 1.79 children, down from 1.84 in 2000 and 2.5 in 1980.
In the EU, the average is 1.47 children, although French women and Irish women tend to have 1.9 children. Italian and Spanish women have the least children with 1.25 and 1.24 respectively. Children born out of wedlock in Cyprus accounted for 2.3 per cent of all births compared to only 0.6 per cent in 1980. In the EU, births outside marriage were highest in Sweden where 55 per cent of all babies are born outside of wedlock.
In France the figure is 42.6 while in Denmark it reaches 44.6 per cent and in the UK 39.5 per cent.
Statistics on Europe’s hottest topic, migration, showed that the population of the EU increased by 0.4 per cent in 2001 and that around 75 per cent of the population increase was due to migration and only 25 per cent to a natural increase.
Out of a population increase of 6.4 people per thousand in Cyprus, half was due to a natural increase and the remaining half was due to migration. In all EU countries, migration accounted for two and three times the number of natural births except in Finland where the natural increase surpassed the number of migrants.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
