(BRUSSELS) - If you want to know where the fattest Europeans live, where to get the cheapest petrol or in which country more women smoke than men, then help is at hand.

The Eurostat Yearbook, published Tuesday, may not be everyone's idea of a page-turner but if league tables are your thing then it could be for you.

Where else, for example, could you discover that Greeks spend more of their household expenditure on clothes and shoes than anywhere else in the European Union?

For those seeking to fly off to Malta's sun-kissed Mediterranean shores, the yearbook informs that while you may be getting away from it all, you won't be getting away from them all, as the former British colony is the most densely populated country in the Union with 1,272 inhabitants per square kilometres.

The more anti-social holidaymaker might like to turn instead to Finland, where you will find just 17 people for each square kilometre.

You can get a bit more specific too. If you want to get away from youngsters, then Bulgaria, where only 13.8 percent of residents are under 15, is the place for you, and you would definitely want to avoid Ireland's 20.7 percent.

Even more important than where to take your holidays, is the small matter of how long you are going to live.

The news is, of course, good for women, Eurostat informs us, as the European female of the species will on average live six years longer (81.2 years) than their males counterparts (75.1 years).

European men have the highest life expectancy in Sweden (78.4) while women are better off longevity-wise in France or Spain (83.8).

Of course the statistics are not devised to be some kind of European Book of Records, but are a research tool made available to governments, politicians, NGOs, journalists for free, and to the general public for 30 euros.

"The yearbook is a window on our statistics and an invitation for people to look in more detail at what we have to offer," said Tim Allen in the Eurostat Press Office. "The vast majority of our data is available free on our website," http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat.

While you are at liberty to check on the relative levels of national public expenditure on labour market policy, you may find your eyes wandering in search of the highest divorce rate (Belgium), biggest smokers (Latvia) or longest working week (Greece).

As for the fattest country in Europe, that honour belongs to Britain, or to England to be more precise as Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish figures are strangely lacking. Germany and Malta are not far behind in the overweight stakes, with the French being the slimmest Europeans of all.

As for the place where more women smoke than men, that happens to be Sweden. The good news for the Swedish health authorities is that Sweden overall registered the lowest level of smoking, with just 16.5 percent of the population indulging.

Concerning where to go for the cheapest petrol, it's hard to say, despite the Eurostat book, as most of the statistics are a couple of years old or more.

If you're looking to fill up your time machine in 2005, however, the best bet is to avoid the Netherlands and head for Latvia.

Eurostat Yearbook 2006-2007

Text and Picture Copyright 2007 AFP. All other Copyright 2007 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.