Trivia : European society

Maciamo

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Did you know that :

- 60% of European women and 5-10% of European men dye their hair

- the mean age for marriage in the EU is 29.5 years old for men and 27 years old for women. Latvians and Poles men marry the youngest (26.5 years old) while Swedish and Danish men marry the oldest (32 years old). For women, Lithuanians, Poles and Slovaks marry at the lowest age (24) while again it is highest for Swedes and Danes (30).

- European women have their first child in average at age 29. The youngest mothers are found in Lithuania (average of 27 years old) and the oldest in Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden (30 years old).

- France is the country with the most naturalisations of foreigners per year, with nearly 140,000 of them in 2003. The UK has the most asylum applications though.

- 16.5% of EU nationals are over 65 years old. Italy has the highest percentage (19.2%) while Ireland has the lowest (11.1%).

- Italians have the longest 'healthy years' (at birth) for both men and women.

- Lithuania has the highest number of medical doctors per capita (400 per 100,000 people), but the Czech Republic has the most hospital beds per inhabitant.

- Latvia has by far the highest number of fatal transport accidents per capita in the EU (then it is Lithuania). Greece has by far the lowest (followed by Malta).

- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia have the highest death rate for heart diseases. France and Portugal, Italy and Spain have the lowest.

- Hungary, followed by the Czech republic and Slovakia have the highest death rate for cancer. Finland, Malta, Greece and Luxembourg have the lowest.

- Lithuania, then Latvia, then Estonia have the highest suicide rate for men. Lithuania, Finland and Hungary have the highest rate for women. The lowest rates are found in Portugal, Italy and Malta for both men and women (as well as the UK and Spain for women).

- 90% of Poles, Slovaks, Czechs and Slovenes have completed at least secondary education (highest score), while less than 50% have in Malta and Portugal.

- The Swedes and the Danes spend the longest time in tertiary education with an average student age of 25.5 and 25 years old. The Irish and the Cypriots have the youngest median age, around 20 years old. The EU average stands at 22 years old, while it is 22.5 in the USA.

- 40% of Swedish women and 32% of Swedish men aged 25 to 64 participate in education or training. The EU average is 10% for women and 9% for men. Greece has the lowest score with about 3-4% for both sexes.

- Denmark, then the Netherlands have the highest employment rate with respectively 75% and 73% of the population age 15 to 64 holding a job in 2003. Poland and Malta have the lowest with just 51% and 54%. The EU average is 63%, while it is 70% in Japan and 71% in the USA.
Note : Employment rate is not the opposite of unemployment rate as the latter only takes job-seekers into accounts (not people without a job but not looking for one).

- In 2004, the unemployment rate was the highest for both men and women in Portugal (20 and 18%) and Slovakia (19.5 and 17%). It was lowest for women in Finland and the UK (both 4%) and lowest for men in Luxembourg (3%) and Austria (4%).

- Austrians work the longest, with 45h per week, and Lithuanians the shortest with 39.5h per week. The EU average is 42h per week. Part-timers work the longest hours in the Czech Republic and Belgium (about 24h/week), but the shortest in neighbouring Germany (just 17h/week).

- The Netherlands has the highest percentage of part-timers both for men (22% of total) and women (75% !). Part-time work is almost inexistent for men in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Spain and Greece. It is lowest for women in Slovakia and Hungary (less than 5% of all employed women).

- Households are biggest in Poland and Slovakia, and smallest in Germany and Finland (although not so different, ranging from 2.1 to 3.1 people in average)

- About 95% of Irish households live in a house rather than a flat, compared with 80% of Belgians, 60% of French and only 35% of Italians. In Portugal and Greece a much bigger proportion of poorer people live in houses, while the opposite is true in the UK and Denmark.

- 85% of Greek or Spanish people own their accommodation, compared to only about 40% in Germany. The gap between the rich and the poor in owning one's accommodation is biggest in Sweden and Finland, but almost inexistent in Greece and Spain.

- Southern Europeans (e.g. Greeks, Italians and Portuguese) live in more crowded houses than Northern Europeans (e.g. Dutch, Danish, British, Belgians). The Dutch have in average 2.5 rooms per person, while the Greeks and Portuguese have only 1.4.

More information of Eurostats
 
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Here is are interesting lifestyle stats from Eurostat

Households having mobile phone access but no fixed telephone access (2006)

Lithuania : 48%
Finland : 47%
Czech Republic : 42%
Latvia : 40%
Slovakia : 38%
Portugal : 38%
Estonia : 36%
Hungary : 30%
Austria : 28%
Italy : 25%
Belgium : 24%
Romania : 24%
Spain : 23%
Poland : 20%
Ireland : 18%
Bulgaria : 17%
Denmark : 14%
France : 14%
United Kingdom : 13%
Slovenia : 13%
Greece : 12%
Germany : 11%
Cyprus : 10%
Luxembourg : 8%
Netherlands : 4%
Malta : 3%
Sweden : 0%

It is startling to see the gap between neighbouring countries like Sweden and Finland, which also happen to be the two pioneers of mobile telecommunications with Ericsson and Nokia.

Let's also note that Cypriots call the longest in average (6min), while the Poles hang up quickest (1.2min per call).


Post offices in Europe

The cheapest place to send a letter, either state-wide or EU-wide, are Malta and the Czech Republic. The most expensive locally are Finland, Denmark and Italy, while EU-wide Sweden tops the list, followed by Denmark, Hungary, Ireland and Poland. Surprisingly it can be more expensive to send your European mail from an Eastern European country than from the UK or France.

Preferred way of paying among Europeans

Half of all Europeans still prefer to pay cash, 36% by card, 7% by cheque and 5% by transfer.

However, this varies a lot from one place to another. 35% of the French prefer cheques, and they are pretty isolated in that choice. Apart from 13% of the Brits and 11% of the Irish, almsot nobody likes to use cheques in Europe anymore.

62% of the Dutch, 61% of the Swedes and 58% of the Belgians prefer to use their bank cards. The most reluctant are by far the Greeks (only 4%, against 95% for cash !), followed by the Hungarians (13%).

Bank or postal transfers are most common in Austria and the Netherlands, but hardly ever a payment preference elsewhere.

Spain and Portugal are the countries with the most ATM's per inhabitant, while Poland and the Czech Republic have the least.
 
I actually didn't know that , thanks for the great info. :D


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Did you know that :

- In 2004, the unemployment rate was the highest for both men and women in Portugal (20 and 18%) and Slovakia (19.5 and 17%).

Hi everyone, I'm new here. :) Just discovered this site.

Just to correct some information in this thread. The unemployment rate in Portugal in 2004 was nowhere near 20%. This information is wrong. If I'm not mistaken, it was around 6%. Currently it is around 9%.

Looking forward to reading more posts.
 
Welcome aboard!
 
Hi everyone, I'm new here. :) Just discovered this site.

Just to correct some information in this thread. The unemployment rate in Portugal in 2004 was nowhere near 20%. This information is wrong. If I'm not mistaken, it was around 6%. Currently it is around 9%.

Looking forward to reading more posts.

Yes, the figure for Portugal is way off. Unemployment was as low as 4% in the late 1990s.
 
Just to correct some information in this thread. The unemployment rate in Portugal in 2004 was nowhere near 20%. This information is wrong. If I'm not mistaken, it was around 6%. Currently it is around 9%.
Welcome to Eupedia !

Stats from Eurostat are rarely wrong. They are the most reliable source of statistics for European society. Note that these are the figures for 2004, when unemployment was quite high in Europe. There was a news release about unemployment yesterday. Unemployment in Portugal was at 9.3% in May 2009 (just under the EU average of 9.5%). The highest is now Spain, with 18.7%.
 
Yes, the figure for Portugal is way off. Unemployment was as low as 4% in the late 1990s.

Which European country hasn't had an unemployment of 4% over the last 20 years ? (well, maybe France and Italy).
 
EU society includes 16 million Muslims. In whole Europe there are 53 million Muslims.
 
Are most practicing Muslims?
 

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