Low infant mortality rate in Malta
by a staff reporter
Malta has one of the lowest infant mortality rates among European Union candidate and south eastern European countries, a study published recently revealed.
According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Communities, the mortality rate was 5.3 per 1,000 babies, only marginally higher than the 5.2 rate in the Czech Republic, the lowest among the countries in review. Eurostat figures show that Turkey, at 37.9 per 1,000, had the highest infant mortality rate.
The study also revealed that demographically, Turkey had the largest population with 63.5 million while Malta had the smallest with 377,500 inhabitants, Eurostat said.
A steady decline in populations in most countries was noticed since 1994 except in Malta, Poland, Slovakia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus.
The highest rate of increase was Turkey with 15.1 per 1,000 people in 1998, while Malta's rate was 3.8. The highest rates of decline were registered in Bulgaria and Latvia where the populations dropping by 6.4 per 1,000 people.
The statistics were published in a new extensive yearbook published by Eurostat. The publication covers topics such as education and health, demography, gross domestic product, national accounts, finance, industry and construction, tourism, transport, trade, the environment, agriculture and labour force.
It should serve as a working tool for all interested in the enlargement process and the political and economic developments in these areas, Eurostat said.
The statistics in the yearbook show that Hungarians were the youngest to enter compulsory schooling at five years of age, while Albanians were the youngest to leave it at 13.
Compulsory education generally lasted between eight and nine years, Eurostat said, except for Hungary where it lasted 11 years.
English was the preferred foreign language for secondary school pupils in most countries. German in Hungary and French in Romania however took precedence.
Eurostat said the next most popular second language was German except in Bulgaria and the Baltic states where it was Russian and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania where French was preferred.
Women outnumbered men in higher education in almost all candidate countries. In Bulgaria 61 per cent of the total number of students were women, Eurostat said, adding that, according to available data, only the Czech Republic had slightly more men in their higher education system, with 52 per cent.
Eurostat said over the 1994-1998 period, the supply of medical services had greatly improved with the number of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants steadily increasing. The ratio varied from 365 per 1,000 in Lithuania to 116 per 1,000 in Turkey.
Eurostat said the number of dentists had also registered an improvement but with ratios varying dramatically from 93 per 100,000 inhabitants in Cyprus to just 25 per 100,000 in Romania and Turkey.
Gross domestic product in 1998 was highest in Turkey at 175.8 billion Euros and lowest in Malta with 3.1 billion Euros.
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