Risk of disappearing

“As a result of divorces, abortions, declining births, ageing of the population and inadequate policies of support, the monogamous family risks disappearing from the continental panorama”, says the report on the evolution of the family in Europe 2007″, drawn up by the European network of the Institute of Family Policy (IPF, www.ipfe.org). The report, also presented to the European Parliament, is based on data and information drawn from the main statistical agencies between 1980 and 2005. All the indicators regarding population, birthrate, marriage, family breakdown, demographic growth, and percentage of youth in society have deteriorated significantly over the last 25 years. “The panorama of the family in Europe – commented Lola Velarde, President of the IPF European network – has deteriorated in a worrying manner”. MARRIAGES DECLINING. In spite of the growth of the population of Europe by 33.8 million, marriages are sharply declining. In the 27 countries of the EU, there were 692,000 less marriages in the period between 1980 and 2005, a reduction of 22.3%. Moreover, the age of marriage has been progressively deferred: the European average now sees men marrying at the age of 30 and women at 28, a delay of c. 4.5 years over the average in 1980. The average age of first maternity is also increasing. It is now approaching the age of 30 in the EU as a whole: at the two extremes we have Lithuania where the lowest age for first maternity is registered (27.1), and Spain with the latest age (30.9). Together with Lithuania, Latvia (27.2), Slovakia (27.3) and Poland are the countries with the lowest average age of maternity, while Spain is followed by Ireland (30.6) and Holland (30.1) as the countries with the highest.SEPARATIONS AND DIVORCERS INCREASING. Marriages are not only declining in number: they are also increasingly unstable. Over the last 25 years divorces and separations have grown by 55%, now reaching an average of one every 30 seconds. Between 1990 and 2005 the records show there were 13,753,000 marriage breakdowns, with the involvement of 21 million children. The record of divorces is in Germany (almost 380,000), followed by Great Britain and France. In percentage terms of the growth of separations and divorces, Spain is in first place with an increase in the last 11 years of 326%, followed by Portugal with 89% and Italy with 62%. In 1980 one marriage in every 4.6 was broken; in 2005 one marriage in every 2.3.ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN. Another phenomenon that has been registered is the growth in the number of illegitimate children: the figures speak of almost two million every year (1,893,000 in 2005) with an average of one in three (33.1%). The highest percentages of children born to unmarried parents were registered in Sweden (55%), Bulgaria (45.4%), Denmark (45,4%), France (45.2%) and the UK (42.3%). The lowest percentages of children born out of wedlock are registered in Cyprus (3.3%), Greece (4.9%), Switzerland (13.3%) and Italy (14.9%). ABORTIONS INCREASING. From the demographic point of view, another phenomenon needs to be registered: the very high frequency of the number of abortions in the 27 member countries of the EU (one every 25 seconds). In 2004 alone the number of aborted children reached the figure of 1,235,517, equivalent to an average of 3,385 per day, 141 abortions every hour. The figure is even more worrying if we consider that, in spite of the great progress in reducing infant mortality, 19.4% of pregnancies, i.e. one in five, were suppressed. In 2004 there were 6,352,499 pregnant women, but 1,235,517 of the children conceived were terminated by abortion. The six EU countries with the highest number of abortions were France with 210,669, the UK with 194,353, Romania with 191,038, Italy with 136,715, Germany with 129,650 and Spain with 84,985: they represented 77% of all abortions in the EU in 2004. In terms of the total population, in spite of the growth in the number of couples, 1,024,352 less children were born in the EU in 2006 than in 1982.DEMOGRAPHIC COLLAPSE. To this situation we should add the modest demographic growth in Europe and the ageing of the population that is its consequence. Between 1994 and 2006 the European population grew by 19 million, of whom 15 millions (69%) were immigrants. To have zero growth rate in the population, in other words generational replacement, each woman should have on average 2.1 births, but in 2005 the average in the EU was only 1.38 children per woman. France with 1.94 and Ireland with 1.88 were the two countries with the highest birthrates, while the countries with a more critical birthrate are Greece (1.28), Spain and Italy (1.34). At the same time the ageing of the population is proceeding rapidly, with Italy having the primacy of the highest percentage of old people (19.4%) and Ireland the highest percentage of youth. The IPF report, lastly, points out how exiguous are the resources allocated by the EU and its member countries to family policies. In particular, the European countries, on average, allocate less than 8% of their social expenditure to families.