The UK is Named as The Worst Place in Europe to Live

The latest quality of life index issued by consumer review business USwitch has named the UK and Ireland as the worst places in Europe to live.

The research, which was conducted by Research Insight in August this year, scored countries in Europe against a number of different factors, including average household income, average working hours, hours of sunshine, retirement age, annual leave allowance, % of GDP spent on healthcare and % of GDP spent on education.

The UK was named as the 9th worst place to live out of the countries assessed with this position being attributed to high living costs, low government spending on public services such as education and healthcare and late retirement. On the whole the survey painted a very negative picture of life in the UK, with people living there paying amongst the highest prices for fuel and food, working the longer hours than most of their European counterparts, retiring later than the majority of people living elsewhere in Europe and having less sunshine.

France was named as the best place in Europe to live, topping the index for health spending as a % of GDP. France also had the lowest retirement age, with the average French resident retiring at the age of 59 years three months.

Spain was named as the second best place in Europe to live having the highest number of annual leave days per year (43) and more sunshine hours per year (2665).

The Best Places in Europe to Live

For the full results see the USwitch website.

If you’re considering relocating overseas then make sure you check out the relocation guide for the city you’re relocating to. Each guide contains comprehensive information about what life in that expat city is really like and can help prepare you for your move abroad in advance.