welfare: Welfare Indicators of European Countries
In p2distance: Welfare's Synthetic Indicator

Description Usage Format Details Source References Examples

Quality of life's indicators (welfare indicators) of 27 countries of European Union during 2002-2007 period. For each variable (i.e. indicator) both, definition and year is specified. The source is available in EurLIFE (see details)

1	data(welfare)

A data frame with 27 observations on the following 20 variables.

happiness: Mean value on a scale of 1 'Very unhappy' to 10 'Very happy'. Year: 2007
life.satis: Life satisfaction: Share of individuals aged 15 and over who are very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the life they lead. Year: 2006
judicial: Trust in the judicial system: Percentage of people aged 15 and over who tend to trust in justice or the legal system. Year: 2005
night: Unsafe to walk around at night: Percentage of individuals aged 18 and over who think that it is very unsafe or rather unsafe to walk around the area they live at night. Year: 2003
social: Satisfaction with social life: Percentage of the poplation aged 15 and over, who are very or fairly satisfied with their social life. Year: 2004
people: Trust in people: Mean value on a scale of 1 'You can't be too careful in dealing with people' to 10 'Most people can be trusted'. Year: 2007
family: Satisfaction with family life: Mean value on a scale from 1 'very dissatisfied' to 10 'very satisfied' with the family life. Year: 2007
health: Satisfaction with the national health care system: Percentage of individuals who are very or fairly satisfied with their national health system. Year: 2002
life.65: Life expectancy at the age of 65: Average number of further years a person at the age of 65 would live if, for the time period, the observed age-specific mortality rates remains constant. Year: 2003
life.0: Life expectancy at birth: average number of years a person would live if, for the time period, the observed age-specific mortality rate remains constant. Year: 2005
inequality: Inequality of income distribution: The ratio of total income received by the 20% of the population with the highest income (top quintile) to that received by the 20% of the population with the lowest income (lowest quintile). Year: 2005
hobbies: Too little time for hobbies and interests: Percentage of people aged 18 and over having too little time for hobbies and interests. Year: 2007
education: Satisfaction with education: mean value on a scale of 1 'Very dissatisfied' to 10 'Very satisfied' with their own education. Year: 2007
standard: Satisfaction with standard of living: Mean value on a scale of 1 'very dissatisfied' to 10 'very satisfied' with the own present standard of living. Year: 2007
dist.school: Distance to the nearest primary school: Proportion of people aged 15 and over who live within walking distance or within 20 minutes of the nearest primary school. Year: 1999, 2005
area: Satisfaction with the area you live in: Share of individuals aged 15 and over who are very satisfied or fairly satisfied with area they live on a five item scale. Year: 2004
home: Satisfaction with the home: Share of individuals aged 15 and over who are very satisfied or fairly satisfied with their home on a four item scale. Year: 2004
stress: Find work stressful: Share of people who 'strongly agree' or 'agree' that their work is too demanding and stressful. Year: 2007
employement: Employment rate: Employed persons aged 15-64 as a percentage of the total population in that age group. Year: 2005
job: Job Satisfaction: Percentage of employed people who are very or fairly satisfied with their job, measured on a four item scale. Year: 2005

These quality of life indicators come from different sources (Standard Eurobarometer Surveys; European Quality of Life Surveys; Eurostat; European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) that are available from EurLIFE, a interactive database on quality of life in Europe (see source below).

EurLIFE database. Interactive database on quality of life in Europe. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/areas/qualityoflife/eurlife/index.php - Accessed 20 Feb 2012

Somarriba, N. and Pena, B. (2009). Syntheic Indicators of Quality of Life in Europe. Social Indicators Research, 94, 115–133.