European Quality of Life Survey 2012

As the European Union grows in size and diversity, it becomes increasingly challenging to summarise the impact of state actions on the lives of citizens. One approach to this complexity is to group countries based on characteristics relevant to quality of life. This report develops a country typology focused on quality of life as a multidimensional concept.

This policy brief highlights findings on a specific topic from Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) that is of particular interest from a policy perspective. It brings results of the analysis of these data together with evidence from other Eurofound projects to formulate a number of policy pointers. The focus of this policy brief is the weekly working time preferences of people aged 50 and over.

The economic crisis has reshaped the lives of millions of European citizens. But how has it affected families with children? Children are more at risk of poverty or social exclusion than the overall population in a large majority of EU countries; hence, it is important to understand how the crisis has affected the households in which these children grow up. This report describes the changing quality of life across the EU for different types of families with children and compares their living standards and social situation. Grouping the EU Member States into four categories on the basis of the flexibility or otherwise of their family policies, it also examines potential patterns that may be related to different family policy approaches. Themes that emerge from the findings include the particular challenges facing lone parents, the greater difficulties facing jobless families since the onset of the crisis, and the increasing extent of conflict parents experience in seeking to balance their work and family lives.

This policy brief highlights findings on a specific topic from Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) that is of particular interest from a policy perspective. It brings together results from the analysis of EQLS data and evidence from other sources to formulate a number of policy pointers. The focus of this policy brief is findings on trust in national and European political institutions and on civic engagement during the economic crisis.

This policy brief highlights findings on a specific topic from Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) that is of particular interest from a policy perspective. It brings results of the analysis of these data together with evidence from other Eurofound projects to formulate a number of policy pointers. The focus of this policy brief is household over-indebtedness – in particular, the role of informal debts.

This report assesses the impact of the crisis on the subjective well-being of Europeans. In 2011, GDP per capita in 22 out of the then 27 EU Member States was below 2008 levels, and unemployment rates were higher in 25 out of the 27. These indicators demonstrate worrying trends, but the report goes deeper, trying to answer various questions: What is the real impact on people’s lives? Who has been hit hardest? Where have there been positive wellbeing patterns? What explains the variation in well-being across Europe? How can policy increase or stem the fall in well-being in the future?

This paper is one in a series on EU enlargement countries covered by the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) 2012: Croatia, Iceland, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. One way of measuring a society’s progress is by assessing the subjective well-being of its citizens, to complement the more usual economic information such as GDP. This report looks at three subjective well-being measures in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: life satisfaction, happiness and optimism. On average, people in this country rate their life satisfaction at 6.8 on a scale of 1 to 10. This is below the average in the EU27 (7.1), where life satisfaction levels range from 5.5 in Bulgaria to 8.4 in Denmark.

Ovaj dokument pruža pozadinske informacije za profile kvaliteta života u sedam zemalja proširenja EU koje su objavljene kao pojedinačni dokumenti na veb-sajtu Eurofounda. U njemu se identifikuju zemlje koje su učestvovale u ispitivanju, objašnjavaju odlike ispitivanja i daju definicije pokazatelja o kojima je izveštavano u dokumentima o pojedinačnim zemljama. U 2011-2012, kad je izvršeno treće Ispitivanje kvaliteta života u Evropi (IKŽE), Evropska unija se sastojala od 27 zemalja članica. Proširena je na 28 kad joj je pristupila Hrvatska, 1. jula 2013.