Albania among 4 European countries with the highest child mortality rate

2025-01-30 07:57:00, Sociale CNA

Albania ranked fourth in Europe, after Estonia, Finland and Italy, for the sharp decline in the number of children aged 0-5, according to a recent European Union report on the progress of education in Europe. In these countries, the number of children decreased by more than 20% between 2013-2023.

According to the EU, this alarming trend extends to many other countries. Europe is aging. People are now living longer than ever before, but at the same time fewer children are being born.

On 1 January 2023, there were 25 million children under the age of 6 living in the EU, 2 million fewer than a decade ago. Furthermore, population projections show that the trend is expected to continue with 1 million fewer children by 2030.

While the number of children has been falling, the overall population in the EU-27 has been growing. The falling number of children in society may lead to less attention to children's needs or, conversely, may encourage policies to increase birth rates.

The European Union analyzes that the overall increase in spending on preschool education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) suggests that most countries are moving towards the second option, encouraging births.

In 2023, there were 8.1 percent fewer children than in 2013, but in the EU, average public spending on children up to 6 years old increased from 0.67% of GDP in 2014 to 0.71% in 2021.

In recent years, the highest increase in financing for children's needs was observed in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland and Iceland. But Sweden and Iceland stand out for much higher investments in children, exceeding 1.6% of their GDP. In contrast, Albania, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey spent less than 0.3% of their GDP on children.

In terms of the number of young children, Italy and Spain saw the largest declines with over 700,000 fewer children between 2013 and 2023. France and Turkey experienced declines of 550,000 and 515,000 children during this period.

Some countries deviated from this overall trend. The number of children remained relatively stable over the past decade in Denmark, Cyprus, Hungary, Slovakia and Sweden.

In some countries, there has been a significant increase. For example, in Germany, the population of children aged 0-5 increased by 18 percent from 2013-2024. Furthermore, Luxembourg and Malta have recorded increases of 13.3 and 10.5 percent respectively. In Austria and Switzerland, the number of young children has increased by 9.9 and 8.4 percentage points respectively./ Monitor Magazine