Details in the Eurostat yearbook 2010, released today show that over 25% of births in Malta and Gozo are outside marriage.

The yearbook presents a comprehensive selection of the available statistical data at Eurostat, together with explanatory text. The yearbook may be viewed as an introduction to EU statistics and provides guidance to the vast range of data freely available from the Eurostat website and its online databases. There are linked data codes below each table in the PDF version of the publication, leading directly to the relevant tables on the website. The yearbook shows how key indicators have developed in the EU27, the euro area and the Member States. Data for the Candidate countries, the EFTA countries, the US and Japan are also included when available.

The 2010 yearbook has fourteen main chapters on different statistical areas. The first chapter puts national accounts in the spotlight. The other chapters cover all major statistical domains: economy, population, health, education, labour market, living conditions and welfare, industry and services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, trade, transport, environment and energy, science and technology and Europe’s regions. An annex contains details of the nomenclatures used.

Proportion of births outside marriage has doubled in the EU27 over the last twenty years

The marriage rate has decreased in the EU27, from 6.3 marriages per 1000 persons in 1990, to 5.1‰ in 1998 and 4.9‰ in 2007. The marriage rate in 2008 was below that for 1990 in all Member States except Denmark, Ireland (in 2007), Poland, Finland and Sweden. The highest marriage rates in 2008 were observed in Cyprus (7.7‰), Lithuania (7.2‰), Romania (6.9‰), Denmark and Poland (both 6.8‰), and the lowest in Slovenia (3.3‰), Bulgaria (3.6‰), Luxembourg (3.9‰) and Hungary (4.0‰). Malta stood at 6%.

The proportion of live births outside marriage in the EU27 has doubled, from 17.4% in 1990 to 35.1% in 2007. This proportion has increased in all Member States except Denmark, where it remained nearly stable at 46%. More than half of all births were outside marriage in 2008 in Estonia (59.0%), Sweden (54.7%), Slovenia (52.8%), France (52.6%) and Bulgaria (51.1%). The lowest shares were found in Greece (5.9%), Cyprus (8.9%), Italy (17.7%) and Poland (19.9%). Malta stood at 25.4%.

Social protection accounts for largest share of government expenditure

In the EU27 in 2008, total government expenditure was 46.8% of GDP with the highest shares in Sweden (53.0%), France (52.7%), Denmark (51.8%) and Belgium (50.0%), and the lowest in Slovakia (34.8%), Luxembourg (37.2%), Bulgaria (37.3%) and Lithuania (37.4%). Malta stood at 44.9%.

The largest part of government expenditure in 2008 in the EU27 was allocated to social protection (18.2% of GDP). This was the case in all Member States, the share ranging from 9.4% of GDP in Latvia, 9.8% in Slovakia and 9.9% in Cyprus to 22.4% in Denmark, 21.8% in France and 21.5% in Sweden. Malta stood at 14.4%.

Government expenditure on health ranged from 3.0% of GDP in Cyprus and 4.2% in Romania to 7.8% in Denmark, Ireland and France. Expenditure on education varied from 3.1% in Greece and 3.3% in Slovakia to 7.8% in Cyprus and 7.0% in Denmark. Malta stood at 5.6%.

Lifelong learning more frequent in Nordic Member States

In 2009 in the EU27, 9.3% of persons aged 25 to 64 participated in lifelong learning, which means that they received education and training in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The share was 8.5% in 2003. Significant differences in this share are observed between Member States. In 2009, the highest shares were found in Denmark (31.6%), Sweden (22.2%), Finland (22.1%), the United Kingdom (20.1%) and the Netherlands (17.0%), and the lowest in Bulgaria (1.4%), Romania (1.5%) and Hungary (2.7%). Malta stood at 5.8%. In the EU27, the share of those taking part in lifelong learning was 10.2% for women and 8.5% for men in 2009. The share for women was higher than for men in all Member States, except Germany and Cyprus.

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