Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels recently, Dr Mikael Ostergren unveiled a new World Health Organisation fact sheet (Euro/06/05) on the health of children and adolescents in Europe. Mortality of children under the age of five is falling in Europe, but a child born in the Commonwealth of Independent States is three times as likely to die before the age of five as a child born in the EU. The average figures of children dying in the first five years of life ranges from 6 per 1000 in the EU, 15 per 1000 in central and Eastern Europe and 26 per 1000 in the countries formerly constituting the USSR. The WHO highlights the connection between poverty and health. In the EU, the proportion of children living below national poverty levels ranges from 2.4% in Denmark to 10.2% in Germany and Austria and 16.6% in Italy. Nutrition and eating habits are a great cause for concern, adds the WHO. In the EU, of a total child population of 77 million, an estimated 14 million or overweight. This figure rises by 400,000 every year. Of the 14 million, 3 million are obese and this figure is rising by 85,000 every year.