” ” Higher life expectations and higher schooling, but also more daily working hours which are paid less. Today, just before next Wednesday’s International Women’s Day, Eurostat, the statistic office of the European Union, made known a series of data about the women’s condition in the European Union. First of all, the survey says: “In the European Union with 25 member countries, women live six years more than men, on the average”. The most considerable difference is in Lithuania (77.7 years of average life for women against 66.3 for men), while the smaller difference is in Malta (80.7 against 76.7). “One of the consequences of this situation is that, in 2004, women represented 59% of the people over 65 years of age”. As for the fertility rate (number of children per woman in fertile age), on the whole, it is 1.5: the highest rate is in Ireland (1.99 children per woman), while the lowest is in the Czech Republic (1.22). At the same time, the average age of a woman giving birth to her first child is increasing: it was 26.8 in 1994 and 28.2 ten years later. The youngest mothers can be found in the three Baltic Republic (first child when they are 24 years old). The oldest are in Spain and in the United Kingdom (29). (to be continued)” “
