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, â??The evolution of the family in Europe in 2008â??, was debated in parliament on Wednesday and describes the European birth rate as â??criticalâ??.
Urging national governments to set up a ministry for the family, it says, â??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.â??
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: â??Europe is undergoing a demographic winter, and now, Europe is an elderly continent.â??
