WOMEN’S life expectancy is expected to fall behind the EU average between now and 2030, according to the latest Eurostat report.
The current Cypriot life expectancy at birth is 83.1 years for women and 78.5 years for men. This is expected to rise by less than the European average, meaning Cypriot women will live shorter than average lives.
Excluding Ireland, the proportion of Cypriot women over 65 is the lowest in Europe; 13 per cent compared to 19 the report says.
The report also estimates that by 2030, the gap between men and women will have narrowed to just three years, with female life expectancy rising to 84.9 years. This is the current lifespan of Europe’s most long lived women, the French. Cypriot men in 2030 will have a life expectancy of 81.5.
The predicted EU average life expectancy in 2030 will be 85.3 and 80 years respectively.
The Eurostat report, released ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, also shows trends in internet use, comparing men and women in Cyprus with the rest of the EU.
The report shows that Cypriots’ uses of the internet is among the lowest in Europe, and consistently lower for both sexes in four categories of emailing, news monitoring, internet banking and job-seeking.
When it comes to internet banking, Cypriots’ use of the internet in the last three months was less than half the European average, (15 per cent compared to 32.5 per cent) and Cypriot use of the internet to apply for jobs was almost a third of the European average (5.5 per cent compared to 15 per cent)
The relatively low number of internet based job applications could be linked to the relatively high employment rate, which is also shown in the report. The employment rate in the third quarter of 2009 was 78 per cent for men and 62.3 for women. This compares with a European average employment rate of 71 per cent for men and 58.7 for women.
Cyprus unemployment rate at the beginning of this year also compares favourably with the rest of Europe, for both men and women. In Europe unemployment was 9.3 and 9.7 for women and men respectively, but only 6.4 and 6.1 in Cyprus. The highest unemployment rates were in Latvia (three times higher for women, and over four for men) Spain (around three times higher for each) and Greece (twice as high for women, and marginally higher for men)
