From January 1st, the 27-member EU will come close to a population of half a billion. This was found today by Eurostat in a survey on the EU, starting from the new year, when Romania and Bulgaria will become full members of the EU. On that date, Slovenia will be the thirteenth country to adopt the euro as its currency. First of all, the statistics office of the EU finds that "the population will rise by 6%" from 463.5 million in the current member states to 49.8 million. Bulgaria has a population of 7.7 million, while Romania has a population of 21.6 million. As to "life expectancy, the EU average today is 75.8 years of age for men and 81.9 for women. The figures in Bulgaria are lower, as they are 69 for men and 76.3 for women; which is similar to Romania, with 68.2 years of age for men and 75.4 for women. The birth rate in the two eastern European countries (number of children per woman) is lower than the EU average, while their child death rate is higher. Economically Eurostat notices that "agriculture accounts for 10% of the total added value in Bulgaria and Romania, against an average value of 2%" in the other EU member states. But while "inflation is much higher than in the other EU member states", "the unemployment rate remains lower than the EU average".
