France - best place to live in Europe

[frogblogger]

France tops the list for quality of life and life expectancy, while the UK - despite its higher average earnings - languishes at the bottom, according to this Uswitch study...

The UK and Ireland are the worst places in Europe to live, according to the latest uSwitch.com Quality of Life Index. While the UK enjoys the highest net household income in Europe, quality of life is the poorest, proving that there is more to good living than money. Long working hours, lower holiday entitlement and a high cost of living all contribute to a poor quality of life in the UK – and it’s not much better for the Irish either:

Best quality of life can be found in France and Spain. The worst can be found in the UK and Ireland

Depressing: UK workers can expect to work 3 years longer and die 2 years younger than their French counterparts

Cost of living: consumers in the UK are paying above the European average for fuel, food, alcohol and cigarettes

Health and education: the UK’s spend on healthcare and education is below the European average. Only Ireland and Poland spend less on healthcare, but Ireland has more doctors and hospital beds and Poland has more beds than the UK

Longer life: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden all enjoy longer life expectancy than the UK

Retirement age in the UK has dropped, but it is still the 4th highest in Europe

UK enjoys highest net household income, but workers in the UK get lowest holiday entitlement in Europe.

The latest uSwitch.com European Quality of life Index reveals that people in the UK are still getting a raw deal compared with their European neighbours. Despite the fact that the UK enjoys the highest net household income in Europe – £35,730 a year, which is more than £10,000 a year above the European average[11] – this does not translate into a good life.

Instead, people in the UK can expect to work longer, die younger and enjoy lower standards of healthcare and education.

The uSwitch.com study examined 17 factors in order to understand where the UK sits in relation to nine other major European countries. Variables such as net income, taxes and the cost of essential goods, such as fuel, food and energy bills, were examined along with lifestyle factors, such as hours of sunshine, holiday entitlement, working hours and life expectancy to provide a complete picture of the quality of life experienced in each country.

The findings show that people in the UK and Ireland have the poorest quality of life, while the French and Spanish enjoy the highest. The UK gets the lowest number of days holiday per year, pays the highest prices for diesel and food and spends below the European average (as a percentage of GDP) on health and education. It also has the 4th lowest life expectancy in Europe and workers retire later than most of their European counterparts.

France, which topped the league, enjoys one of the lowest retirement ages, has the longest life expectancy in Europe and spends the most on healthcare. Its workers also benefit from 34 days holiday a year – compared with only 28 in the UK – and it comes only behind Spain and Italy for hours of sunshine.

Spain, which topped the league last year, enjoys the most sunshine – but it has more to smile about than just that. The Spanish can expect to live a year longer than people in the UK, enjoy the highest number of days holiday in Europe (41 days a year) and pay the lowest fuel prices. And as if that’s not enough to celebrate, they are paying the lowest prices for alcohol too.

This year’s index does not reveal the full impact of the recession – this can be expected to show next year. However, France officially went into recession in May 2009 and has already emerged again (August 2009). This quick turnaround could see it maintaining a high quality of life despite the economic difficulties facing most European nations. Spain entered recession in February 2009 with no official announcement as to when it is likely to exit. Poland is the only country in the study not to have gone into recession and it is widely expected to avoid it throughout 2009.

Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, says: “There is more to good living than money and this report shows why so many Brits are giving up on the UK and heading to France and Spain. We earn substantially more than our European neighbours, but this level of income is needed just to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table and our homes warm. It’s giving us a decent standard of living, but it’s not helping us achieve the quality of life that people in other countries enjoy.

“For too long the focus in the UK has been on standard of living rather than quality of life. As a result we have lost all sense of balance between wealth and well-being. The recession could prove to be a turning point, forcing us to re-evaluate our way of life, get back to basics and to the things that really count. Consumers are already beginning to do this – the Government and its policymakers would do well to follow suit.”

A lot more, plus the data used and sources, at the original pdf link.

[hils]

Yeah, well. Guess why I moved to France 7 years ago .....

[Bevdeforges]

Hm, it would be interesting to stick the US into that survey and see how they fare on the indicators chosen: average work week, number of days of holiday, life expectancy. It could make the UK look like heaven on earth!
Cheers,
Bev

[hils]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Hm, it would be interesting to stick the US into that survey and see how they fare on the indicators chosen: average work week, number of days of holiday, life expectancy. It could make the UK look like heaven on earth!
Cheers,
Bev

Unlikely tho' doncha think speshly given the lastest forecast of 425K increase pa in UK population thanks, apparently, to propagating immigrants, and a current infrastructure which can't cope with what is there already.

Might make the conditions US citizens work under grimmer, but the otherwise benefits might be greater.

I'm minded of a comment early in our sejourn here by a French woman who asked how I could possibly have come here for a better quality of life when I was whizzling about waking up to ambient temperatures (internally) of around 5Deg C. (Ambient temperature now resolved).

Spose it depends what your values and priorities are ....
Hils

[frogblogger]

I've seen a lot of changes since my first stint here in 1974. For me many of those quality of life factors are being steadily undermined, despite stubborn resistance from the French. More and more shops opening on Sundays (isn't there a law change in the offing, or has it already been implemented?) .... fast food lunches, with the traditional 2 hour lunch break under severe pressure, especially in the cities .... small shops being squeezed out slowly but surely ... kids bombarded by Anglo-Saxon TV junk viewing ...

Life isn't as frantic as in the UK, but the faces on the Metro are almost as grim as those on the tube these days.

Who remembers the 70s, when the papers were predicting robots would be doing all our work for us, as we entered the next millennium!