• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

Quality of life

Overview

Challenges arising from low employment rates, an ageing population, changing family structures and social exclusion have put quality of life issues at the top of the EU social policy agenda.

Recognising the need for additional comparable data on the subject of living conditions, Eurofound launched a pan-European Quality of life survey in 28 countries in May 2003. This was the first step in a major initiative to monitor and report on living conditions and quality of life in Europe.

The second European Quality of Life Survey was carried out in 2007.

Work in this area includes:

• the full descriptive overview of Eurofound's Second EQLS (March 2009)
• results and analysis from Eurofound's First European Quality of life survey (First EQLS). Reports based on EQLS data cover issues relating to income inequalities and deprivation; families, work and social networks; life satisfaction, happiness and sense of belonging; social dimensions of housing; urban/rural differences; participation in civil society; quality of work and life satisfaction; time use and work–life options over the life course
• an interactive database of statistical quality of life indicators, EurLIFE
• and a series of reports on quality of life issues, drawing on results of Eurobarometer surveys on the social situation