Ireland among Europe’s happiest nations, finds report

THE Irish are among the happiest people in Europe and are more satisfied with life than the average European, except for our health services.

A European survey to discover how people across the continent viewed their lives found although there were serious concerns about some areas of life in Ireland, particularly the health service, people were more optimistic about the future than many other nations.

The survey of 26,000 people from the 25 EU countries and the three candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions found Danish people are the happiest, most satisfied and most optimistic people in Europe.

In terms of overall satisfaction, Danes gave themselves 8.4 out of 10, and an 8.3 rating for happiness.

Irish people rated their level of satisfaction at 7.7 and their happiness at 8.1, putting them with Finland, Denmark and Luxembourg at the top of the table.

Labour Affairs Minister Tony Killeen said the survey gave attention to the finding that Irish people were among the happiest in Europe.

“However, progressing the work-life balance agenda and other agendas presents a complex set of challenges for policy-makers, social partners and families,” he said.

“These challenges, both social and economic, do not necessarily dovetail with each other.”

Willy Bushak, acting director of the European Foundation, said Ireland’s results in the survey showed in principle a “good story”.

“Irish people are fairly satisfied, they are fairly happy and fairly optimistic,” Mr Bushak said.

The only area which Irish people gave a low score to was the quality of health services, which received a rating of 5.3, well below the EU15 (the countries in the EU before enlargement) average of 6.4.

But Mr Bushak said there was also a divide between people in the upper and lower quartiles of wealth and that 28% of people felt they couldn’t afford a week’s annual holiday, compared to the EU15 average of 24%.

Family still has a high value in Irish society with most respondents saying they would go to relatives if they needed financial support, Mr Bushak said.

“With one voice they are saying it’s a good job, it’s good pay, it’s a good quality job,” he added.

The survey of 26,257 people across Europe was carried out by data collection agency Intomart, who interviewed around 1,000 Irish people for the poll.