We’re among worst for quality of life
The Uswitch.com survey, conducted in September of this year, looked at 10 countries, examining a range of 17 factors which it considers to have an effect on the population’s quality of life.
Those factors included health spending, consumer costs, education spending, life expectancy and retirement age. Hours of sunshine and number of holiday days per year were also looked at.
Despite having the second highest average net household income at €31,000, compared to an average of €27,000, Ireland is found to have among the worst scores in a number of areas.
This country spends 7.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on health.
That compares to 11% in France, 10.8% in Denmark and 10.6% in Germany.
Only Poland performed worse in that category at 6.2%.
The average across the 10 countries surveyed was 9%.
The story is similar in education, where Ireland spends 4.9% of GDP compared to 8.3% in Denmark, 7% in Sweden and 5.6% in France and the Netherlands.
Irish workers, on average, receive the second lowest number of holiday days at 29 per year.
Only Britain is worse at 28 days. Almost all the other countries enjoy more than 30, with Spain the highest at 41 days.
In terms of day-to-day costs, Ireland’s performance is mixed.
While the price of unleaded petrol here is recorded at the somewhat low figure of 99c compared to €1.15 in Britain and €1.24 in the Netherlands, the cost of electricity, gas, alcohol and tobacco are all found to be particularly high.
At 17.9c per kilowatt hour, Ireland has the highest electricity price of any of the countries surveyed – in France the figure is 9.3c. Alcohol and cigarettes are also the most expensive of any of the regions. At €1.58 per unit, alcohol far exceeds the other prices in Europe.
In Spain, the figure is €0.65. A pack of 20 cigarettes cost €5.41 compared to just €1.15 in Poland.
The survey makes grim reading for older members of society. Irish people get to retire later than anyone else in Europe at 64.1 years. That compares to 59.3 in Poland and 59.4 in Spain. And it would appear that once they do retire, Irish people have much less time to enjoy their years away from work than many of their European counterparts.
The life expectancy for Ireland according to Uswitch.com is 78.1. Only Poland at 75.4 has a lower expectancy. French people live to an average of 80.9 years.
