Knowing in order to choose

According to a Eurobarometer survey, carried out in 2006, eight citizens out of ten declared they were “fairly” or “very” satisfied with their own life, while the majority of those interviewed said they were “optimistic” about the future. If the EU polling agency were to put the same questions today to a young Polish student, a Spanish female shop assistant or an Irish pensioner, what replies would it get? (For previous fact files see SIR Europe nos. 9 and 11/2009)Statistics and surveys. ‘Photographing’ the EU isn’t easy, whether it be by compiling statistics or sending out questionnaires that test the ‘mood’ of citizens. Undoubtedly in a phase like the present one, characterized by economic recession, the replies one would get would be cause for concern, even if they would be very different from each other depending on country, social class and other subjective factors. Nonetheless some interesting indications emerge from the raw statistical data, just as tendencies emerge by comparing different sources such as those that follow, coming from Eurobarometer, Eurostat, private research institutes, European Commission, and national statistics bureaux, processed over the last twelve months. The age of the “single child”. For example, it is well known that the birth rate is in free fall in Europe, with a corresponding ageing of the population: but not everyone knows that children below the age of 14 now form less than a fifth of the total Europeans and, according to Eurostat, “in 2050 the EU population will comprise” on current trends “30 million inhabitants less”. Moreover, each year some 800,000 births less than 25 years ago are being registered: Ireland, France and in general the countries of Northern Europe show the highest birth rates, while the lowest are being registered in the Mediterranean nations (Greece, Spain, Italy, etc.). So, in the EU-27, families with a single child now form the majority; by contrast, those with more than three children only represent 4% of the total. At the same time the average age of mothers is growing: in general the first child is now born when the mother is already thirty years old.An abortion every thirty seconds. An analysis of the demographic data relating to the family also reveals that the number of abortions remains very high, reaching approximately one million per year; that means that in Europe an abortion is carried out every thirty seconds. No less worrying data emerge if the marriage data are analyzed: over the last twenty-five years weddings (civil or religious) have continued to contract in number and are now less than 600,000 per year compared with the figures for the early 1980s; that’s a reduction of 23%. Concurrently the number of divorces has soared, involving a growing number of children – some 20 million -, divided between mums and dads who have decided to live separate lives. Family income and costs. Remaining within the “domestic walls”, some evaluation of family income is possible. In Europe, explains a Eurostat survey conducted last summer, half of the income brought home is used to cover the costs of housing and food. But the differences between countries are considerable. “A third of the expenditures of families – maintains the EU statistics agency – is devoted to housing, including utility bills for gas, electricity and water”. Mortgages and rents absorb precisely 33% of the family budget; 19% is allocated to food; 12% to transportation (personal car or public transport); and 8% to leisure and culture. Right at the bottom of the classification we find health-care (3%) and schooling (1%). The biggest expenditures for housing are registered in Bulgaria and Luxembourg, the lowest in Romania and Malta. For food, on the other hand, a Romanian family will spend as much as half of its income, a Lithuanian family 37%, while families in the UK and Sweden will only spend 12%. On meat a family will spend less than 2% of its income in Sweden, but 12% in Romania. Outlays on newspapers and books fluctuate from 0.6% in Bulgaria to 2.4% in Malta. Social protection? Another source that throws light on the Europe “of the peoples” is the “Report for 2008 on social protection and inclusion”, published by the Barroso Commission. It is based on some “key issues” with the aim of monitoring (and then tackling) with greater precision those problems that concern citizens, families and categories “at risk”. Many difficulties are linked, according to the Report, to the different social situation in the member countries, different standards of life, wage levels, and the presence or not of quality public services (schools, hospitals). The Report concludes, among other things, that 16% of EU citizens “remain exposed to the risk of poverty”, while a further 8% of the population do not have sufficient income in spite of the fact that one or more of its members have a job. “Of the 78 million Europeans who risk poverty, 19 million are children”. (3 – to be continued)