Few countries in the European Union are as dependent as Ireland on the articulated lorry to move goods around. Yet perhaps there is nowhere safer in Europe when it comes to violent crime.
These are just a couple of the findings in a Central Statistics Office report, Measuring Ireland's Progress, published yesterday.
The report ranks Ireland lowest in Europe for homicides per capita.
Road transport as a percentage of total inland freight transport rose from 90.2 per cent in 1994 to 97.6 per cent in 2003, leaving Ireland more dependent on the lorry to move goods about than all but three EU member states.
In the union, about three-quarters of freight was moved by road in 2003, reflecting better rail and air networks in central and eastern Europe.
Ireland ranked poorly on a number of other environmental indicators, including greenhouse gas emissions as a percentage of Kyoto treaty targets, and the recycling of municipal waste.
Some 71.7 per cent of municipal waste collected in 2003 was landfilled in Ireland, compared to an EU average of 48.9 per cent.
In education, there were mixed blessings as Ireland ranked third in the EU for the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds with third-level education in 2004. However, it has bigger class sizes and higher student-to-teacher ratios than the European average.
Among the more surprising findings was the fact that Ireland had the second-highest percentage increase in population between 1995 and 2004 in the EU after Cyprus. Yet the average household size decreased from 3.13 persons in 1995 to 2.88 in 2004.
There was a 45 per cent increase in the number of two-person households and a 14 per cent increase in one-person households over the same period.
On the economy, the report noted direct inward investment flows represented 17 per cent of GDP in 2003 - 10 times the eurozone 12 average.
However, cumulative inflation in Ireland over the period 2000-2004 was 16 per cent, compared to an EU 25 average of 9 per cent. Over the same period, the euro increased in value against the dollar by 17 per cent.
The proportion of people at risk of poverty, after pensions and social transfer payments were taken into account, was 21 per cent in 2003, a rate matched only by Slovakia of those EU countries surveyed.
"The effect of pensions and social transfers on reducing the at-risk-of-poverty rate was low in Ireland compared with other EU countries," the report added.
In 2001, social protection expenditure in Ireland was 15.3 per cent of GDP. This was half of the rate in Sweden and the lowest of the 15 EU countries in that year.
The report noted that Ireland's net official development assistance amounted to 0.39 per cent of Gross National Income in 2003, below both the UN 2007 target of 0.7 per cent, and the interim 2002 Government target of 0.45 per cent.
The aid commitment put Ireland seventh in the pre-enlarged, 15-state EU.
