In 2025, Luxembourg reached the highest score in the quality of life index in Europe, with 220 points. In second place, The Netherlands registered 211 points. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Albania and Ukraine registered the lowest quality of life across Europe with 104 and 115 points respectively. The Quality of Life Index (where a higher score indicates a higher quality of life) is an estimation of overall quality of life, calculated using an empirical formula. This formula considers various factors, including the purchasing power index, pollution index, house price-to-income ratio, cost of living index, safety index, health care index, traffic commute time index, and climate index.

Eurofound Income indicators is a section of the Eurofound interactive database on quality of life in Europe. Its website offers quantitative and quantified indicators drawn from surveys of the European Foundation and other published sources. The data cover 34 countries.

Carried out every four years, the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It collects data on a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and perceived quality of society. By running the survey regularly, it has also become possible to track key trends in the quality of people's lives over time. Previous surveys have shown, for instance, that people are having greater difficulty making ends meet since the economic crisis began. In many countries, they also feel that there is now more tension between people from different ethnic groups. And across Europe, people now trust their governments less than they did before. However, people still continue to get the greatest satisfaction from their family life and personal relationships.

Over the years, the EQLS has developed into a valuable set of indicators which complements traditional indicators of economic growth and living standard such as GDP or income. The EQLS indicators are more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress and therefore are easily integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate at EU and national levels in the European Union.

The time series dataset enables the study of quality of life over 4 waves of the EQLS from 2003-2016.

Further information about the survey, including questionnaires and technical reports, can be found on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) EQLS webpages.

For the third edition (March 2018), the data file has been updated to include data from the fourth EQLS completed in 2016. A new Read Me file has also been provided and users are advised access the questionnaire and technical report from the Eurofound https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/european-quality-of-life-surveys/european-quality-of-life-survey-2016" title="EQLS 2016">EQLS 2016 webpages.

Compared with previous surveys, Flash Eurobarometer No 227 introduced new questions to assess people’s satisfaction with, for example, public spaces in their city (such as markets, squares and pedestrian areas) and possibilities for outdoor recreation (such as walking and cycling). A new series of questions was also introduced about transport modes and the usage of public transport, together with a question on perceptions about the most important issues of cities. Finally, new question statements were added, such as “poverty is a problem in this city”, “this city is a healthy place to live” and “generally speaking, most people in this city can be trusted”.

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

Estonia and Lithuania had the highest Digital Quality of Life index in Central and Eastern Europe in 2023, at **** and *** points on a scale from zero to one, respectively. In comparison, Bosnia and Herzegovina scored the lowest among the presented CEE countries. The index ranks the quality of digital wellbeing in a country.

The share of people unable to make ends meet - defined as not being able to afford essential goods and services which enable a decent quality of life - in Europe has fallen consistently over the past decade. This is true for both those falling below the 'at-risk-of-poverty' threhold and for those above it. People above 60 percent of median income have seen their risk fall by almost half since 2013, while those below the threshold saw their risk fall by around a third. As of 2024, around a fifth of people who are below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold could not afford essential goods and services.

For this survey, 41.000 people have been interviewed in 78 cities and 4 urban agglomerations. Via a range of questions, citizens were asked to express their views on the various dimensions of urban life. How do they assess the quality of services such as public transport, health care, education, cultural and sport facilities? Do they consider migration as an asset for their city? How do they perceive job availability or affordable housing in their cities? Are people satisfied with the place they live, the life they lead, or the financial situation of their household?

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. Carried out every four years, the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It collects data on a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and perceived quality of society. By running the survey regularly, it has also become possible to track key trends in the quality of people's lives over time. Previous surveys have shown, for instance, that people are having greater difficulty making ends meet since the economic crisis began. In many countries, they also feel that there is now more tension between people from different ethnic groups. And across Europe, people now trust their governments less than they did before. However, people still continue to get the greatest satisfaction from their family life and personal relationships. Over the years, the EQLS has developed into a valuable set of indicators which complements traditional indicators of economic growth and living standard such as GDP or income. The EQLS indicators are more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress and therefore are easily integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate at EU and national levels in the European Union. In each wave a sample of adult population has been selected randomly for a face to face interview. In view of the prospective European enlargements the geographical coverage of the survey has expanded over time from 28 countries in 2003 to 34 countries in 2011-12. Further information about the survey can be found on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) EQLS web pages. Main Topics: The survey examines a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health, work-life balance, life satisfaction and perceived quality of society. Multi-stage stratified random sample See documentation for details Face-to-face interview 2003 AGE AGRICULTURE ATTITUDES Austria BASIC NEEDS Belgium Bulgaria CARE OF DEPENDANTS CAREER DEVELOPMENT CHARITABLE ORGANIZA... CHIEF INCOME EARNERS CHILD CARE CHILDREN COMMUTING COMPUTERS CONSUMER GOODS Cyprus Czech Republic DEBILITATIVE ILLNESS DEBTS DECISION MAKING DISABILITIES DISADVANTAGED GROUPS DOMESTIC RESPONSIBI... Denmark ECONOMIC ACTIVITY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND EDUCATIONAL COURSES EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT HISTORY ENGLISH LANGUAGE EVERYDAY LIFE EXPECTATION EXPOSURE TO NOISE Estonia European Union Coun... FAMILY LIFE FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOOD AND NUTRITION FURNITURE Finland France GENDER GENERAL PRACTITIONERS Germany October 1990 Greece HEALTH CONSULTATIONS HEALTH SERVICES HOURS OF WORK HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS HOUSEHOLD HEAD S EC... HOUSEHOLD HEAD S OC... HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEWORK HOUSING CONDITIONS Hungary INCOME INTERGROUP CONFLICT Ireland Italy JOB SATISFACTION LABOUR FORCE LABOUR RELATIONS LAND OWNERSHIP LEISURE GOODS LIFE SATISFACTION LIFE STYLES LIVING CONDITIONS LOCAL COMMUNITY FAC... LUCK Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg MEALS MOTOR VEHICLES Malta NEIGHBOURHOODS Netherlands OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY OCCUPATIONAL STATUS OCCUPATIONS PARENTS PERSONAL CONTACT POLITICAL PARTICIPA... POLLUTION POVERTY Poland Portugal QUALIFICATIONS QUALITY OF LIFE RECREATIONAL FACILI... RELIGIOUS ATTENDANCE ROOMS RURAL AREAS Romania SATISFACTION SOCIAL ATTITUDES SOCIAL EXCLUSION SOCIAL INDICATORS SOCIAL LIFE SOCIAL SECURITY BEN... SOCIAL SUPPORT STANDARD OF LIVING STATE RETIREMENT PE... STRESS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUBSIDIARY EMPLOYMENT SUPERVISORY STATUS Slovakia Slovenia Social behaviour an... Social conditions a... Sweden TERMINATION OF SERVICE TRAINING TRUST Turkey URBAN AREAS United Kingdom VOLUNTARY WORK WAGES WATER PROPERTIES WORK ATTITUDE WORKING CONDITIONS

The cities in Europe where survey respondents most commonly indicated that they were a good place to live for gay and lesbian people were Rekjavik,Valletta and Groningen in 2023. In general, the cities which ranked as the best place to live for lesbian and gay people in Europe were in Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland, Copenhagen, Sweden, Finland), western European countries (Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands), and southern European countries (Italy, Malta, Spain). The five cities with the fewest respondents indicating that they were a good place to live were all in south-eastern Europe, with the bottom two both coming from Turkey (Diyarbakir) and Albania (Tirania). Turkey tends to rank so lowly due to the influence of traditionalist and religious social norms, which do not recognize LGBTQ relationships as being on a par as heterosexual relationships and lead to more commonly held homophobic views.

"The survey exclusively focuses on quality of life, showing how satisfied people are with various aspects of urban life, such as employment opportunities, presence of foreigners, public transports and pollution in their cities. It is designed to allow cities to compare themselves on 30 criteria addressing social, economic, cultural and environmental issues. It should inspire stakeholders and decision-makers to follow a holistic approach to sustainable urban development." #####The results by volumes are distributed as follows: * Volume A: Countries * Volume AA: Groups of countries * Volume A' (AP): Trends * Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries * Volume B: EU/socio-demographics * Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: http://www.gesis.org/en/home/

This dataset is about books. It has 3 rows and is filtered where the book subjects is Quality of life-Europe. It features 9 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

Quality of life in European cities................

Many studies have shown that childhood circumstances can have long term consequences that persist until old age. To better understand the transmission of early life circumstances, this paper analyses the effects of health and financial situation during childhood on quality of life after retirement as well as the mediating role of later life health, educational level, and income in this association. Moreover, this study is the first to compare these pathways across European regions. The analyses are based on data of 13,092 retirees aged ≥ 60 and ≤ 85 years from the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with full information on childhood and later life measures of health, educational level, financial situation, and quality of life as well as relevant covariates. Five European regions are studied: Central-Western Europe (Austria, Germany), Central-Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden), Southern Europe (Italy, Spain), and Western Europe (Belgium, France, The Netherlands). Path analysis is used to identify the direct and indirect effects of childhood measures on quality of life. We find retirees’ quality of life to be associated with childhood finances and health in all five European regions. While both the direct and indirect effects of childhood health are rather moderate and homogeneous across regions, especially the direct effects of childhood finances on quality of life after retirement display a distinct North-South gradient being strongest in Southern Europe. Potential explanations for the regional variations are differences in the countries’ welfare systems.

The survey covers multiple dimensions of quality of life: employment and work-life balance, income and deprivation, housing and local environment, family and social contacts, health and mental wellbeing, subjective wellbeing (e.g. happiness, life satisfaction), social exclusion, perceived quality of society (e.g. tensions, trust in institutions) as well as access to and perceived quality of public services. Multi-stage stratified random sample See documentation for details Face-to-face interview

This report presents the results of a Special Eurobarometer survey which was carried out from 17 November to 2 December 2012. This report is divided into four chapters: I. LIFE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 1. ARE EUROPEANS HAPPY? 2. QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 3. THE ECONOMIC SITUATION OF EUROPEANS 4. BELIEF IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM 5. IDEOLOGICAL POINTS OF VIEW II. THE IMAGE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 1. HOW EUROPEAN ARE EUROPEANS? 2. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 3. THE EUROPEAN UNION’S MAIN ASSETS 4. THE EUROPEAN UNION’S VALUES 5. THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION VIS-À-VIS OTHER GLOBAL PLAYERS 6. EUROPEANS AND GLOBALISATION III. THE FUTURE OF EUROPE 1. WHERE SHOULD THE EMPHASIS LIE? 2. THE EUROPEAN UNION’S MAIN CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE 3. WHAT WOULD BE MOST HELPFUL FOR EUROPE’S FUTURE? 4. A CALL FOR MORE EUROPEAN UNION DECISION-MAKING? 5. VIEWS OF A TWO-SPEED EUROPE IV. THE EUROPEAN UNION IN 2030 1. QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 1.1. The next generation 1.2. Quality of life in 2030 2. THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IN 2030 3. SOLIDARITY VS. INDIVIDUALISM IN 2030 – EXPECTATIONS AND PREFERENCES 4. THE POLITICAL DOMINANCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN 2030

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

The European Quality of Life Time Series, 2007 and 2011 dataset was prepared as open access data, originally for the UK Data Service's first App Challenge in summer 2015. The dataset has achieved Platinum (Expert level) certification from the Open Data Institute (ODI) which means this open data is an exceptional example of information infrastructure. The dataset is a harmonised subset of variables taken from the larger European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), which is one of a number of key surveys carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), a European Union Agency established in 1975 to contribute to the planning and design of better living and working conditions. The open access dataset contains 195 variables from two of the EQLS survey years, 2007 and 2011/12, three weighting variables, and almost 80,000 cases. The EQLS is a unique, pan-European survey, established in 2003 and carried out once every four years. The survey examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It looks at a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness, how satisfied they are with their lives, and how they perceive the quality of their societies. Further information about the survey can be found on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) EQLS webpage. A larger EQLS combined file spanning 2003-2012, subject to standard End User Licence access conditions, is available to registered UK Data Service users under SN 7348 - European Quality of Life Survey Integrated Data File, 2003-2012 Main Topics: The survey covers multiple dimensions of quality of life: employment and work-life balance, income and deprivation, housing and local environment, family and social contacts, health and mental wellbeing, subjective wellbeing (e.g. happiness, life satisfaction), social exclusion, perceived quality of society (e.g. tensions, trust in institutions) as well as access to and perceived quality of public services. Multi-stage stratified random sample See documentation for details Face-to-face interview

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a research infrastructure for studying the effects of health, social, economic and environmental policies over the life-course of European citizens and beyond. From 2004 until today, 530,000 in-depth interviews with 140,000 people aged 50 or older from 28 European countries and Israel have been conducted. Thus, SHARE is the largest pan-European social science panel study providing internationally comparable longitudinal micro data which allow insights in the fields of public health and socio-economic living conditions of European individuals.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys queried respondents on standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with their present life, whether they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed political matters, and how they viewed the need for societal change. Additional questions focused on the respondents' knowledge of and opinions on the European Union (EU) including how well-informed they felt about it, what sources of information about the EU they used, whether their country had benefited from being an EU member (or would benefit from being a future member), and the extent of their personal interest in EU matters. Another major focus of the surveys was to ask respondents to express their opinion in regard to the European Constitution, including its adoption and ratification. Respondents also were asked about EU enlargement including whom they would favor to join the EU, the political, social, and economic effects of enlargement, and initiatives for the success of further EU enlargement. In addition, respondents were asked questions about exports versus imports and migration among the EU's old and new member states, the accession of Western Balkan countries and Turkey, and financial assistance available to EU member and candidate countries. Special topics included quality of life, avian influenza, and energy issues. For the first special topic, quality of life, the survey asked respondents to evaluate the economic, social, and environmental situation among several domains, in addition to their personal financial status and quality of life, and to identify priorities for the improvement of the EU economy. For the next special topic, respondents were queried about avian influenza, its transmission, regulations preventing its spread, their behavior in consuming poultry and eggs, dissemination of health information, and public safety. For the final special topic, respondents answered questions about their usage of energy and how the EU citizens and government could reduce energy consumption and utilize alternative resources. Demographic and other background information includes age, gender, nationality, birthplace, marital status, left-right political self-placement, occupation, age at completion of full-time education, household composition, religious affiliation and involvement, and ownership of a fixed or a mobile telephone and other durable goods. In addition, country-specific data include size of locality, region of residence, language of interview (select countries), and a list of television channels, radio stations, and daily newspapers that respondents regularly viewed, listened to, or read during the course of a week.

Abstract

EU-SILC has become the EU reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social exclusion at European level, particularly in the context of the "Program of Community action to encourage cooperation between Member States to combat social exclusion" and for producing structural indicators on social cohesion for the annual spring report to the European Council. The first priority is to be given to the delivery of comparable, timely and high quality cross-sectional data.

There are two types of datasets: 1) Cross-sectional data pertaining to fixed time periods, with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions. 2) Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically - usually over four years.

Social exclusion and housing-condition information is collected at household level. Income at a detailed component level is collected at personal level, with some components included in the "Household" section. Labour, education and health observations only apply to persons 16 and older. EU-SILC was established to provide data on structural indicators of social cohesion (at-risk-of-poverty rate, S80/S20 and gender pay gap) and to provide relevant data for the two 'open methods of coordination' in the field of social inclusion and pensions in Europe.

The 7th version of the 2008 Cross-Sectional User Database (UDB) as released in July 2015 is documented here.

Geographic coverage

The survey covers following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway.

Small parts of the national territory amounting to no more than 2% of the national population and the national territories listed below may be excluded from EU-SILC: France - French Overseas Departments and territories; Netherlands - The West Frisian Islands with the exception of Texel; Ireland - All offshore islands with the exception of Achill, Bull, Cruit, Gorumna, Inishnee, Lettermore, Lettermullan and Valentia; United kingdom - Scotland north of the Caledonian Canal, the Scilly Islands.

Analysis unit

• Households;
• Individuals 16 years and older.

Universe

The survey covered all household members over 16 years old. Persons living in collective households and in institutions are generally excluded from the target population.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

On the basis of various statistical and practical considerations and the precision requirements for the most critical variables, the minimum effective sample sizes to be achieved were defined. Sample size for the longitudinal component refers, for any pair of consecutive years, to the number of households successfully interviewed in the first year in which all or at least a majority of the household members aged 16 or over are successfully interviewed in both the years.

For the cross-sectional component, the plans are to achieve the minimum effective sample size of around 131.000 households in the EU as a whole (137.000 including Iceland and Norway). The allocation of the EU sample among countries represents a compromise between two objectives: the production of results at the level of individual countries, and production for the EU as a whole. Requirements for the longitudinal data will be less important. For this component, an effective sample size of around 98.000 households (103.000 including Iceland and Norway) is planned.

Member States using registers for income and other data may use a sample of persons (selected respondents) rather than a sample of complete households in the interview survey. The minimum effective sample size in terms of the number of persons aged 16 or over to be interviewed in detail is in this case taken as 75 % of the figures shown in columns 3 and 4 of the table I, for the cross-sectional and longitudinal components respectively.

The reference is to the effective sample size, which is the size required if the survey were based on simple random sampling (design effect in relation to the 'risk of poverty rate' variable = 1.0). The actual sample sizes will have to be larger to the extent that the design effects exceed 1.0 and to compensate for all kinds of non-response. Furthermore, the sample size refers to the number of valid households which are households for which, and for all members of which, all or nearly all the required information has been obtained. For countries with a sample of persons design, information on income and other data shall be collected for the household of each selected respondent and for all its members.

At the beginning, a cross-sectional representative sample of households is selected. It is divided into say 4 sub-samples, each by itself representative of the whole population and similar in structure to the whole sample. One sub-sample is purely cross-sectional and is not followed up after the first round. Respondents in the second sub-sample are requested to participate in the panel for 2 years, in the third sub-sample for 3 years, and in the fourth for 4 years. From year 2 onwards, one new panel is introduced each year, with request for participation for 4 years. In any one year, the sample consists of 4 sub-samples, which together constitute the cross-sectional sample. In year 1 they are all new samples; in all subsequent years, only one is new sample. In year 2, three are panels in the second year; in year 3, one is a panel in the second year and two in the third year; in subsequent years, one is a panel for the second year, one for the third year, and one for the fourth (final) year.

According to the Commission Regulation on sampling and tracing rules, the selection of the sample will be drawn according to the following requirements:

1. For all components of EU-SILC (whether survey or register based), the cross-sectional and longitudinal (initial sample) data shall be based on a nationally representative probability sample of the population residing in private households within the country, irrespective of language, nationality or legal residence status. All private households and all persons aged 16 and over within the household are eligible for the operation.
2. Representative probability samples shall be achieved both for households, which form the basic units of sampling, data collection and data analysis, and for individual persons in the target population.
3. The sampling frame and methods of sample selection shall ensure that every individual and household in the target population is assigned a known and non-zero probability of selection.
4. By way of exception, paragraphs 1 to 3 shall apply in Germany exclusively to the part of the sample based on probability sampling according to Article 8 of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EC) No 1177/2003 concerning

Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Article 8 of the EU-SILC Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council mentions: 1. The cross-sectional and longitudinal data shall be based on nationally representative probability samples. 2. By way of exception to paragraph 1, Germany shall supply cross-sectional data based on a nationally representative probability sample for the first time for the year 2008. For the year 2005, Germany shall supply data for one fourth based on probability sampling and for three fourths based on quota samples, the latter to be progressively replaced by random selection so as to achieve fully representative probability sampling by 2008. For the longitudinal component, Germany shall supply for the year 2006 one third of longitudinal data (data for year 2005 and 2006) based on probability sampling and two thirds based on quota samples. For the year 2007, half of the longitudinal data relating to years 2005, 2006 and 2007 shall be based on probability sampling and half on quota sample. After 2007 all of the longitudinal data shall be based on probability sampling.

Detailed information about sampling is available in Quality Reports in Related Materials.

Mode of data collection

Mixed

Sampling Procedure Comment: Probability Sample: Multistage Stratified Random Sample