Women's life expectancy doubles in eight decades

Girls born in 2008 are expected to live almost twice as long as those born 80 years ago.

Women born in 1930 were expected to live until their 43rd birthday while girls born in 2008 have an average life expectancy of 82.3 years, figures by the National Statistics Office show.

The figures, released on the occasion of Women's Day on Monday, show that women are expected to live over five years longer than men.

However, a Eurostat report showed that Maltese women's life expectancy ranked 15th among the 27 EU countries, Norway and Switzerland. French women have the highest life expectancy with those born in 2008 expected to live almost until their 85th birthday on average.

The European report showed that life expectancy in Malta was expected to go up to 84.6 for women born in 2030, and to almost 80 for men.

But while life spans have shot up, the NSO showed that the fertility rate on the island has dropped drastically in the last few decades - from 3.6 in 1960 to 1.4 in 2008. Moreover, the age of first-time mothers has gone up from just over 21 in 1940 to 27 in 2008.

There were almost 208,000 women in Malta in 2008, 2,000 more than men.

The NSO pointed out that the majority of women do less than 10 minutes of exercise a week. Yet, men are fatter: a staggering 45 per cent of them are overweight, compared to 28 per cent of women.

On the other hand, 48 per cent of women are of normal weight, with a body mass index of between 18 and 25, compared to 30 per cent of men. Women also smoke less than men.

Women are more susceptible to poverty than men, with the NSO pointing out that 31,610 females are at risk of poverty, compared to just under 28,000 men.

The statistics also show an increase in the employment rate of females, which went up from 33.6 per cent in 2003 to 37.4 per cent in 2008. On the other hand, the employment rate for men went down from 74.8 per cent to 72.5 per cent.

The European statistics showed that less than half of Maltese women aged between 16 and 74 had used the internet in the past three months to send or receive e-mails. Only 30 per cent of women had used the internet to read or download online newspapers and magazines, while 29 per cent had used internet banking.