Electricity prices per kilowatt hour in Cyprus have not seen single digits since 2004 and were around one tenth of the current figure in 1960, according to an end-of-year report on almost everything you need to know about Cyprus published by the statistical service Cystat.
The 450-page report published in English on the Cystat website covers almost every sector of the economy, social, educational, labour, transport, crime, environment, education, health and other figures many going back to 1960, 1950, 1946, and some even to 1881.
Electricity prices are just the tip of the mine of information contained in the report. In 1960 electricity for domestic use cost merely 2.3 euro cents per kilowatt hour. At the end of 2014 they stood at 18.66 cents, peaking prior to that at 23.91 cents in 2012. The last time they saw single digits was in 2004 at 9.7 cents per kilowatt hour.
According to the report, in 1881 the population of Cyprus was 186,173, almost evenly split but with 4,000 or so more men than women. A year later the population had jumped to 209,286. The two biggest jumps of 1.7 per cent each year were in 1946 and 1960.
Also in 1881 some 29.5 per cent of the population were not married compared to 59.7 per cent who were, 10 per cent who were widowed, and 0.3 per cent divorced. By 2011, the only percentages that had changed significantly were related to the widowed and divorced. Some 5.3 per cent were widowed in 2011 and 4.5 per cent were divorced.
Also in 1881, only 5.8 per cent of the population was over 65. By 2011 this had more than doubled to almost 14 per cent.
Figures on civil marriages go back to only 1974 when 161 were recorded but by the end of 2014, this had jumped to almost 9,000 for the year, the vast majority of those would however be foreign couples or Cypriots marrying foreigners.
In terms of crime, 2,383 cases of all kinds were reported to police in 1976, which jumped to 6,840 by 2014. Interestingly, juvenile crime was far worse in 1976 with 128 cases reported compared to only around 50 cases each year in 2014 and 2013. The number spiked in 1980 with 320 such cases.
The number of people jailed over the years has also had its ups and downs. in 1950 some 1,481 people were jailed, in 1960, around 612. Generally the figure over the years since hovered in or around the 800 to 1,000 mark but the highest ever since 1950 was in 2012 when 1,192 people were imprisoned.
The number of children in care, according to the report has not varied a huge amount since 1973 when 192 were in foster care and 39 in children’s homes. At the end of 2014 however, around 176 were in foster care and 100 in group homes.
Back in 1946, 33 per cent of Cypriots were illiterate – 19 per cent of men and 47 per cent of women. This was a figure with the most dramatic drop. Yet although the illiteracy rate in 2011 was only 1 per cent for men, twice as many women were still illiterate at 2 per cent of the population.
In the health sector, when it came to surgeries carried out by state hospitals the figure was close on doubling since 1980 when 8,575 operations were carried out compared to 14,905 in 2014. In both years, around one third of all surgeries were digestive related. Also interesting was the fact that in 1980, around 90 per cent of the beds at the Athalassa psychiatric hospital were full compared to 68 per cent today.
The report goes as far into details as showing the length of roads in Cyprus each year since 1960, dividing them into asphalt, gravel and forest roads. It also tells readers that Cyprus has 1,760 different kinds of plants, out of which 132 are considered as endemic. Around 18 per cent of the whole island is classified as State Forest Land.
URL: http://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/All/8B6B6163A4A61D3BC225753E0033D015/$file/ABSTRACT-2014-EN-281215.pdf?OpenElement
