Malta has second highest rise among acceding states

Malta had the second highest percentage increase in population among the EU acceding countries last year, statistics released by Eurostat yesterday show.

Of the acceding countries, only Cyprus has shown more population increases than Malta in 2002, the EU's European population trends in 2002, compiled by Eurostat, reveal.

Six out of the 10 recorded a fall in population as acceding countries' population was down by 0.1 per cent in 2002.

The biggest declines took place in Latvia (-6.1 per cent) and Hungary (-2.2 per cent). The population increased in Cyprus (+14.5 per cent), Malta (+6.7 per cent to reach 397,300) and Slovenia (+0.5 per cent), and remained stable in the Slovak Republic.

Ironically, according to the National Statistics Office, in 2002, Malta registered the lowest ever number of live births for the past two decades.

EU population went up by 0.3 per cent in 2002 to reach 379 million. China still leads the world population with 1.28 billion, followed by India at 1.04 billion.

The population increased in all the EU member states, with the largest increases recorded in Ireland and Luxembourg and the lowest in Germany and Italy.

The population would have fallen in Germany, Italy and Greece without positive net migration. Net migration was higher than the natural increase in every member state in 2002, apart from France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Finland.

Positive net migration was recorded in seven out of 10 acceding countries. The exceptions were Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

In Malta, net migration was 4.8 per 1,000 population, behind Cyprus with 10.5.

Average life expectancy in the EU in 2002 was 81.6 years for women (compared with 77.2 in 1980) and 75.5 for men (70.5 in 1980).

The highest figures for life expectancy were in Spain for women (83.1) and Sweden for men (77.7) and the lowest in Ireland, both for females (78.5) and males (73).

In the acceding countries life expectancy was longest in Cyprus - 81 for women and 76 for men. It was shortest in Hungary for women (76.6) and Estonia for men (65.2). The infant mortality rate in the EU continued to fall to 4.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2002 compared to 4.7 in 2001.

The lowest rates among the acceding countries were recorded in Slovenia and the Czech Republic and the highest rate in Latvia.

In Malta the infant mortality rate stood at six per 1,000, a reduction of the 8.2 per 1,000 registered in 2002.

The total fertility rate in the EU in 2002 remained virtually unchanged at 1.47 children per woman, compared with 2001 and 2000.

Among the acceding countries, fertility rates only ranged between 1.17 in the Czech Republic and 1.57 in Cyprus.

The downward trend in the number of marriages in the EU continues, falling from 2.2 million in 1980 to 1.8 million in 2002 (-19 per cent).

On the other hand, the number of divorces increased by 42 per cent in the same period.

Among member states, the number of marriages per 1,000 people ranged from 3.9 in Belgium to 6.9 in Denmark, with the EU average at 4.8; among the acceding countries values varied from 3.3 in Slovenia to 14 in Cyprus.