Romania is the country with the highest infant mortality rate, but its spends the least for education and health, although it is not the poorest in the EU, found a recent report by the National Statistics Institute (INS), reports local News.ro.

Romania is the third poorest country in the EU, after it managed to slightly outpace Croatia in 2016, and also ahead of neighboring Bulgaria.

The ranking looks at the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per inhabitant vs the purchasing power. For Romania, this stands at EUR 17,200, while Croatia reports EUR 17,100, and Bulgaria, EUR 13,900.

But Romania still ranks last for key indicators for quality of life. The country had the highest infant mortality rate, with 7.6 death among 1,000 newborns, which is twice the average rate in the EU. Romania also spends least on health (5.14% of the GDP) and education (2.99% of the GDP), according to latest available data from 2014.

Latvia, second to last for health spending, allots 5.49% of its GDP, while the Czech Republic, second to last for education, spends 3.84% of its GDP.

Romania fares badly for research & development spending, with a second to last place for 0.49% of GDP spending, outpacing only Cyprus. The EU average for this type of spending is 2%.

editor@romania-insider.com