A little light stat stat shooting
Now with added rubbish....
Eurostat has just published its 2006 yearbook, and has put a press release of some highlights. I spent a few seconds mulling in whether I should fork out €30 for the book itself, so should I just shoot myself now? Please note that the results of voting are not binding.
However, first up the findings on the body mass of euroman and eurowoman. German men are the most likely to be overweight, at 66.6% of the Volk. We come an honourable second at 66.2%, with the Maltese hard on our heels at 65.3%. Our Gallic chums are quite good at resisting the appeal of the patisserie, at a Europe wide low of 43.5%, followed by Latvian men at 44%. From what I have heard of Latvian food, I am not greatly surprised.
As to women, the British top the scales at 56.6%, easy winners ahead of the Germans at 53% amd the Maltese at 50.3. Given that there is only the Inn dividing them, Austrian women must be shunning the viennoiserie, with 28.9% overweight. Gallic and Italian women would seem to be keenest on pursuing una bella figura at 30.4% and 31.4%.
Overall, in all countries there is a higher percentage of overweight men than women except in Latvia and Estonia. A curious business. Austria wins out for the highest differential between overweight men and women at 30.5 percentage points, with Latvian and Estonian men and women the most closely matched. As a footnote, there are no figures for Luxembourg - maybe it is a state secret.
Updates later on fuel prices, rubbish generation aned language learning. Probably.
Nick's wish being my command (within reasonable limits, of course), the EU's leading municpal rubbish generators are our Hibernian neighbours at 753 kilos per head, whereas the Czechs and Slovaks manage barely a third of that tally. We come in at ninth, well behind the greener than thou Dutch...
The Cypriots beat the Maltese by a nose to be European landfill champions per head, and given that Malta is not exactly a big place, I'm quite impressed. The Dutch would scarcely dream of it - they landfill less than 2% of the per capita total of the Cypriots.
If you love the smell of rubbish in the morning, make tracks to Denmark. The Benelux countries and France are all going to be pretty whiffy too.
Assuming that the shortfall between rubbish generated and the total incinerated / landfilled represents that recycled, then the place to live if you want to avoid the bin stasi is Poland, at 14kg per head. The Czechs and Slovaks would appear not to have to live in fear of the knock on the door at three in the morning either. Whereas in the Netherlands, it is 412kg per head. But before they start polishing their collective halo, that is a greater weight recycled per head per annum than the total rubbish produced by the Poles....
Labels: EU fun and games, surveys
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on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 1:47 pm.
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I can't bring myself to vote yes, but I have a sneaking suspicion The Hitch would be able to lend a suitable instrument and instruction should I fall with Ayes to the left.
Hitch will shoot you with one of his cockroach gaming pieces
Can't wait for the review of rubbish generation. (How much self-knowledge does Eurostat betray?)
C, much obliged (I shall be careful what I ask for in future) ... Cypriots winning the landfill by a nose, excellent! 98% less per capita for Holland? I thought the whole of the country was landfill
Actually, I suspect some of these numbers will be as dodgy as those for Italian olive production: if you happen to visit SELCHP you may see large quantities of 'recycled paper' being burned. Shocking, eh?
Yes, imagine Cyprus nudging ahead of Malta for landfills! It's such a tiny place, all their new buildings must be built on landfills. I was just checking out property in Malta this morning, and it's very expensive.
Neat place, though. I wouldn't mind living there.
I find it hard to believe that German men are fatter than our own. I have been to both Munich and Berlin in the last few months and was struck by how much more fit and healthy everyone there looked compared with we Brits _ but perhaps all the fatties are in the Ruhr gorging on pig fat and dumplings.
BMI figures were used, and they are a rather hopeless measure - most rugby players rate as being obese on taht measure. Plus I combined overweight with obese: BMI 25+. The Germans won out for their strong showing in 25-29.9, but their showing on 30+ was not in our league. Maltese chaps are those one would least like to crammed up against on an aeroplane - 25.1% at BMI 30+. I suppose flights from London to Valetta are perhaps best avoided.
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