Abortion largest cause of death in Europe, says report
There is a marital breakdown and an abortion in Europe
almost every 30 seconds, according to a major new
report.
Marriage and birth rates are falling dramatically, pensioners now
outnumber teenagers, and more and more people are living alone,
says the Institute for family policy in a survey of life in the 27
EU countries.
The report, ‘The evolution of the family in Europe in 2008’, was
debated in parliament on Wednesday and describes the European birth
rate as “critical”.
Urging national governments to set up a ministry for the family, it
says, “Europe is now an elderly continent. Almost one in every five
pregnancies ends in abortion. The marriage rate fell by 24 per cent
between 1980 and 2006. Two out of three households have no
children, and nearly 28 per cent of households contain only one
person.”
It says the average marriage lasts about 13 years and the number of
abortions in the EU every year is put at 1.2 million - equivalent
to the population of Slovenia. That makes abortion the largest
single cause of death in Europe.
It warns: “Europe is undergoing a demographic winter, and now,
Europe is an elderly continent.”
It says almost one million (920,089) fewer babies were born in the
27 EU countries last year than in 1980.
And figures show there were six million more over-65s than
under-14s in Europe last year, compared with 36 million more
children than pensioners in 1980.
The fact that the number of EU inhabitants has increased at all is
largely due to immigration, the report continues, with 84 per cent
of population growth in 2000-2007 attributable to arrivals from
beyond EU borders.
Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain have the highest rate of marital
breakdown: on average two out of three marriages end in divorce in
each country. And Germany, the UK, France and Spain between them
account for nearly 60 per cent of all EU divorces.
The fall in marriages is described as “dramatic”, with a marriage
rate reduction of 24 per cent between 1980 and 2006. Two out of
three European households now have no children, the report
reveals.
European households are becoming more solitary, too. More than 54
million Europeans live alone, with nearly 28 per cent of European
households having only one person. The average EU household now has
only 2.4 occupants.
The answer to family decline, says the report, is more family-based
policies at national government and EU level: “Although there is
growing awareness of the problems faced by families in the EU,
there is no organisation which is in charge of family policy, nor
does it have a family observatory or a green paper on the
family.”
"Europe is undergoing a demographic winter, and now, Europe is an elderly continent"
From an institute for family policy report, ‘The evolution of the family in Europe in 2008’The Parliament Magazine
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