Wallace, Claire

Over the past decade, Turkey has undergone huge economic and social change. This report uses Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey to capture changes and developments in the quality of life of Turkish people, measured at three periods over the past decade: 2003, 2007 and 2012. The report examines the key improvements in quality of life over this period and investigates whether all social groups benefited equally. It explores the impact of recent policy changes and charts new expectations that may be emerging in Turkey. It finds that people in Turkey became much more satisfied with their lives over the period; they overtook the EU average in terms of satisfaction with health services and self- assessed health; poverty and material deprivation diminished. However, Turkey has a very high proportion of early school leavers, and gender inequality remains stark.

This report explores how Europeans perceive the quality of their societies, and of their public services. It looks at such aspects of society as trust in institutions and other people, perceived tensions between social groups, attitudes towards migrants and the effects of the economic crisis on social inclusion and social cohesion. It finds that satisfaction with the economic situation of one’s country, not being in employment and overall life satisfaction appear to boost satisfaction with public services; hardship appears to reduce it. In societal terms, trust in institutions decreased visibly from 2007 to 2011. Trust in people however changed less than trust in institutions and is more similar across the EU. A positive relationship exists between trust in institutions and satisfaction with the economic situation of one’s own country; a negative relationship between trust in institutions and inequality. And tensions were perceived to be highest between different racial and ethnic groups and between rich and poor.

Perceived quality of life is lower in the candidate countries of Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey than in the EU27, largely due to poverty. Women’s labour force participation is low and jobs in general are characterised by long hours and poor work–life balance. Families are important for subjective well-being, but the rates of approval for public services and trust in institutions vary.

What are the factors that give rise to a feeling of satisfaction with one’s life and do these vary from country to country across Europe? This report explores the role of different aspects of an individual’s life – such as income, age, employment, marital status and health – in shaping the quality of their lives. Drawing on findings from the second European Quality of Life Survey, carried out by Eurofound in 2007, it gives a wide-ranging picture of the diverse social realities in Europe today. An executive summary is available.

Quality of life touches on areas of life relevant to everybody, such as relations with family and friends, as well as on issues pertaining to public policy, such as housing and social relations in the community. This report draws on two rounds of the European Quality of Life Survey, carried out by Eurofound in 2003 and 2007, to give a wide-ranging picture of the diverse social realities in Europe today. It explores patterns of stability and change in the quality of life of the EU population as a whole and questions whether overall quality of life is deteriorating or improving in the different countries.

This analytical report addresses the important question concerning the extent to which quality of work influences people’s overall quality of life. More specifically, the report undertakes a detailed analysis of how working conditions, job satisfaction and work–life balance affect life satisfaction. Central to this analysis is describing how the characteristics of the work situation affect people’s subjective life satisfaction. In doing so, the report reaches some significant conclusions, in particular the strong correlation between working conditions and job satisfaction, which in turn is shown to affect people’s overall life satisfaction.

This national report examines the main trends in temporary agency work and the problems and challenges it poses in Austria. It puts the spotlight on the working conditions of temporary agency workers, and the specific features of such work that might help explain these conditions.