Europe is one of the smallest continents with a surface area of about 3.93 million square miles and the second most populous continent with a population of about 738 million people. Europe is also the second most densely populated continent after Asia with an average density of 143 persons per square mile.

Life expectancy at birth is defined as the average number of years a newborn would live, if subjected throughout his/her life to current mortality conditions. Historically, life expectancy has risen, with increased longevity attributed to a range of factors including improved socioeconomic and environmental conditions, changes in working conditions/occupations, lifestyle changes or better medical treatment and care. It is, however, interesting to note a potential end to such developments as there was a reduction in EU-28 life expectancy at birth in both 2015 and 2017. Women tend to live longer than men. During the three-year period 2015-2017, life expectancy of a female newborn in the EU-28 was 83.5 years; this was 5.4 years higher than the corresponding figure for a male newborn. The gender gap for life expectancy at birth has gradually narrowed over time: information for the EU-28 aggregate is only available for a relatively short time series, with the gap between the sexes having stood at 6.3 years during the three-year period 2002-2004.

The ratio of the number of women compared to the number of men, multiplied by 100. For European Union are 104.5 women per 100 men.

The map shows the number of divorces per 1,000 marriages in European countries in 2017. Most divorces were recorded in Portugal (642), Luxembourg (625) and Russia (617). Marriages also very often broke up in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ukraine, Italy and Finland. The countries of Central Europe look slightly better in this respect, where the number of divorces amounted to 300-400 per 1,000. marriages. The lowest number of divorces was in Macedonia (145), Ireland (149) and Moldova (150).

The total fertility rate in the EUstood at 1.59births per woman in 2017, compared with 1.60 in 2016. The highest total fertility rate since the start of comparable time series was in 2010 when it reached 1.62, still below the replacement level, which is considered to be 2.1 live births per woman. In 2017, France(1.90births per woman) wasthe Member State with the highest total fertility rate in the EU, followedby Sweden (1.78), Ireland (1.77), Denmark(1.75) and the United Kingdom (1.74). Conversely, the lowest fertility rates were observed inMalta (1.26 births per woman),Spain (1.31), Italy and Cyprus (both 1.32), Greece (1.35), Portugal (1.38) and Luxembourg (1.39).

On average in the EU, women who gave birth to their first child in 2017 were 29.1years old. Over five years, the mean age has gradually increased from 28.7 in 2013 to 29.1 in 2017. Almost 5% of births of first children in the EU in 2017 were to women aged less than 20 (teenage mothers) and around 3% to women aged 40 and over. In 2017, the mean age of mothers at the first childbirth varied between the EU Member States. The lowest mean age for the first childbirth was recorded in Bulgaria(26.1years), followed by Romania(26.5), Latvia(26.9), Slovakia (27.1), Poland(27.3), Lithuania(27.5) and Estonia(27.7). In contrast, the mother’s age for the first childbirth was above 30 in Italy(31.1years), Spain(30.9), Luxembourg(30.8), Greece(30.4) and Ireland(30.3).