Malta has high marriage rate

Malta, with six marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, has one of the highest marriage rates in the EU, according to figures published yesterday on the occasion of the United Nation's International Day of Families, which takes place every year on May 15.

Only Cyprus (7.2 marriages per 1,000) and Denmark (seven) have higher rates while Greece (4.2), Belgium (4.1) and Slovenia (3.3) have the lowest.

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, said there were around 2.2 million marriages in the EU25 in 2004, or 4.8 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants.

However, there were almost one million divorces in the EU25 in 2004 (2.1 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants). The member states with the highest divorce rates were the Czech Republic and Lithuania (both 3.2) and Estonia (3.1).

There were almost 4.8 million babies born in the EU25 in 2004, or 10.5 live births per 1,000 inhabitants. Out of these, around one third were born outside marriage.

In the EU25 in 2005, 67 per cent of households were without children. The proportion of households with one child was 16 per cent; 13 per cent had two children and four per cent three or more.

Single parent households represented 13 per cent of all households with children in the EU25 in 2005.

More than a fifth of the household expenditure in the EU25 in 2004 was spent on housing.