The 1971 growth rate, however, may not be maintained. Legislation enacted in 1966 stringently restricted abortions and discouraged birth control practices, resulting in an increased birth rate for the next few years, but by 1971 there were indications that the rate was again declining. Unofficially, it is expected that the population will reach only 25.75 million by the year 2000, or about 27 percent more than in 1970. The projection is based on a growth rate of less than that of the 1970-71 period. It is expected to average about 1.1 percent for the 1971-75 five-year period and to decrease thereafter, resulting in an average of between 0.7 and 0.8 percent over the entire period. Moreover, the increase is expected to be far greater in the over-sixty age group and to provide only about 14 percent more workers in the productive age brackets between fifteen and fifty-nine. In 1970 the birth rate, at 23.3 births per 1,000 of the population, was also exceeded only by Albania's in all of Europe. The rate of infant mortality, at 54.9 deaths during the first year of life for each 1,000 live births, was slightly lower than those of Yugoslavia and Portugal and was exceeded significantly only by that of Albania. The death rate, at 10.1 per 1,000 was very close to the overall European rate of ten per 1,000. According to the 1971 official estimate there were 10.1 million males and 10.4 million females, or 102.8 females for every 100 males in the population. Males outnumber females slightly in the childhood years and are the majority sex in each five-year segment of the population to about the age of thirty. Females outnumber males in the thirty to thirty-four age group, after which there is near numerical equality between ages thirty-five and forty-four. Females attain a clear majority beyond age forty-five. Female life expectancy, at 70.5 years, is approximately four years greater than that of males. The population group with ages from fifty to fifty-four had both a low overall figure and an abnormally low percentage of males (see table 1). The low total reflected a low birth rate during World War I years; the abnormal sex distribution reflected World War II combat losses. The low total in the twenty-five to twenty-nine group resulted from the low birth rate during World War II, and the low figure for the five-to-nine age group reflected the fewer number of parents in the group twenty years its senior and their disinclination to have children because of low incomes and inadequate housing.