RIGA – A report just released by Eurostat on 258 European cities shows that the Latvian capital leads all cities surveyed in percentage of single-parent families and sees less sunshine than the other two Baltic capitals.
Data in the European statistics office's survey show that 24.3 percent of families living in Riga are single-parent families, whereas the European (EU) average is about 10 percent.
In Vilnius, single-parent families make up 5 percent, in Kaunas 5.2 percent and in Panevezys 5.9 percent, the report says. In Estonia, there are 6.6 percent single-parent families in Tallinn and 6.2 percent in Tartu.
The Czech Republic, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Hungary and Slovenia also have rather high rate of single-parent families, according to the report.
Greece and Portugal boast the lowest percentages of single-parent families – 2.8-4.3 percent and 3.1 - 4.5 percent, respectively.
In terms of sunlight, Riga is also behind the pack. According to Eurostat, the sun shines on Riga only 4.5 hours a day on average.
But in Vilnius and Tallinn the sun spoils residents 4.9 hours and 5 hours per day respectively.
Even Finnish cities see more sun than Riga -- 5 hours per day in Helsinki and 4.8 hours per day in Tampere and Turku, the Baltic News Service report.
Still, not all is gloomy. A number of German, Irish, British and Dutch cities have less sunshine than Riga, and the town of Bradford in the United Kingdom is at the bottom of the list with just 3.1 hours of sun daily.
Europe's most sunny city? The Cypriot capital Nicosia, with 8.9 hours per day on average.
