22.2.2007

The old, the fat and the costly: European statistics reveals

                  BRUSSELS (AFP) -- If you want to know where the fattest Europeans live, where to get the cheapest petrol or in which country more women smoke than men, then help is at hand.
The Eurostat Yearbook, informs that the former British colony is the most densely populated country in the Union with 1,272 inhabitants per square kilometers.
            Greeks spend more of their household expenditure on clothes and shoes than anywhere else in the European Union.
          The more anti-social holidaymaker might like to turn instead to Finland, where you will find just 17 people for each square kilometer.
           If you want to get away from youngsters, then Bulgaria, where only 13.8 percent of residents are under 15, is the place for you, and you would definitely want to avoid Ireland's 20.7 percent.
          Even more important than where to take your holidays, is the small matter of how long you are going to live.
          The news is, of course, good for women, as the European female of the species will on average live six years longer (81.2 years) than their males counterparts (75.1 years).
          European men have the highest life expectancy in Sweden (78.4) while women are better off longevity-wise in France or Spain (83.8).
         Belgium has the highest divorce rate, Latvia has the biggest smokers and Greece has the longest working week.
         As for the fattest country in Europe, that honor belongs to Britain, or to England to be more precise as Scottish,      Welsh and Northern Irish figures are strangely lacking. Germany and Malta are not far behind in the overweight stakes, with the French being the slimmest Europeans of all.
         As for the place where more women smoke than men, that happens to be Sweden. The good news for the Swedish health authorities is that Sweden overall registered the lowest level of smoking, with just 16.5 percent of the population indulging.