An increasingly ageing continent?” “

“Childhood and adolescence: a comparative assessment in the European Union” is the theme of a statistical survey on the condition of childhood and adolescence in the fifteen countries of the Union, published in recent days by the national Centre of documentation and analysis on childhood and adolescence of Italy’s Ministry of Labour and social policies. It’s the first study of its kind in Europe. It compares the situation of juveniles in the various countries through the study of sixteen areas including the family, birth-rate, education, criminality and justice. The survey can be consulted on the website: www.minori.it. The population. The data published by the survey show, in particular, that since the 1960s, due to a strong contraction of the birth-rate and a constant increase of average life expectancy, a progressive ageing of the population has been registered in the countries that form part of the European Union. Consequently, the child population (0-14 years) and the juvenile population (0-17 years) have, in the course of these years, represented an declining proportion of the total population. In 1999 the child and juvenile populations represented respectively 17% and 20.6% of the total population resident in the EU (over 375 million inhabitants). Germany and such Mediterranean countries as Italy, Spain and Greece fall below the average values of the EU. Among these countries it is Italy that has the lowest values of all, equivalent to 14.5% for juveniles aged 0-14 and 17.7% for juveniles aged 0-17. Austria, Belgium and Portugal are in line with the average values of the EU, while France, Luxembourg, Holland, the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Finland and Denmark, present values decidedly higher than the EU average. In particular Ireland has the highest percentage, with 22.2% of juveniles aged 0-14 and 27.7% aged 0-17. Immigrant juveniles. In recent years the multiethnic and multiracial character of the European continent has been accentuated. In all the countries of the Union, in fact, the proportion of the foreign component in the population has increased. Both the children born to immigrant parents resident in the EU and juvenile immigrants who have joined their families there have contributed to the increase of the proportion of foreign children and adolescents. The indicator that best expresses the presence and size of foreign juvenile residents in the EU is the ratio between them and the juvenile population of their host country. In Luxembourg of every 100 juveniles resident in the country 33.8% are foreign. Following (in descending order) are Germany with 10.8%, Austria with 9.7%, Belgium with 8% and France with 6.8%. The lowest percentages of foreign juvenile residents are registered in Greece (0.4), Finland (1.8), the UK (2.1), Ireland (2.2), Portugal (2.2), Italy (2.3) and Spain (2.8). Juvenile crime. The survey also tackled the question of juvenile crime and furnishes some ‘contextual’ data, taking the various judicial systems into account. The general “crime rate” (crimes per thousand inhabitants) is very high in Sweden (135 crimes per thousand inhabitants) and in Denmark (101‰), as well as in the UK (87‰), Belgium (80‰), Germany (79‰) and Holland (78‰). Lower rates are registered in Spain (18‰), Ireland (25‰), Portugal (32‰), Greece (36‰) and Italy (54‰). Excluding Ireland, the countries of the centre-north of the EU have higher crime rates than those of the south. As far as the “offender rate” (persons charged per thousand chargeable inhabitants) is concerned, the highest rate is registered in Greece (34.6‰) and the lowest in Spain with 4 persons charged per thousand chargeable inhabitants. Comparing the available data, the rate of juvenile offenders ranges from just over 4 juveniles charged per thousand chargeable juveniles in Portugal, to 82 per thousand in Germany. Significant values are registered in France (43‰), Finland (43‰) and the UK (32‰). In Italy the percentage is 9.7‰. Daniiele Rocchi