Press Release 10/16/2015
SURVEY ON PERSONAL WELL-BEING-EBP 2014
Health status and unemployment were revealed as the factors that have the most influence on the perception of personal well-being
The population of the Basque Country scored "good" (7.1) for satisfaction with life in general, according to EUSTAT data from the Survey on Personal Well-Being, an operation that is being published for the first time and that provides detailed information on the perception of well-being among the population of the Basque Country, through a series of questions that primarily measure aspects concerning quality of life aside from the material dimension.
To this end, people were asked to give a score for their satisfaction with life in general as well as different aspects such as their economic situation, housing and leisure time available, trust in people and institutions, personal relationships, safety in the area where they live and satisfaction with their job, in the case of those in work.
According to EUSTAT data, overall satisfaction with life for the overall population of the European Union (EU28) in 2013 was 7.1, the same as the Basque Country. The countries with a better score were Denmark, Finland and Sweden (8.0) and the only ones that failed were Serbia (4.9) and Bulgaria (4.8).
The data published by the INE (National Statistics Institute), that also refers to 2013, shows an overall score of 6.9 for the Spanish population, with the Balearic Islands (7.3) and Navarra (7.2) being the Autonomous Regions most satisfied with life, compared with Castilla y Léon (6.5) and Galicia (6.1), which display the least satisfaction.
In the case of the Basque Country, the highest score (7.7) was found among people who reported having very good health and the lowest (4.7) was among those who had poor or very poor health.
This indicator not only produced worse scores the poorer people's health was, but also the older they were, going from 7.6 among young people aged 16 to 24, to 6.9 among people aged 65 or older.
On the other hand, the scores increased the higher the level of education, the better the economic situation of the household, and the closer the family relationships.
No significant differences appeared between men and women, whereas at a provincial level, the best results were obtained from residents in Gipuzkoa (7.2), followed by residents of Álava (7.1) and lastly residents of Bizkaia (7.0).
Regarding place of birth, the lowest scores, below average, were given by people born outside of the Basque Country (6.9) or abroad (6.8).
As for the relationship with activity, unemployed people gave one of the lowest scores (5.9).
The value of life indicator received the highest score, 7.5
The value of life scored an average of 7.5, and 56.1% of the population rated it as "high", compared with 3.8% who considered it to be "low".
A higher score was found among women (7.6) than men (7.4), whilst at a provincial level, in this case, it was the residents of Bizkaia (7.6) who valued their life more. Residents of Álava and Gipuzkoa both rated their life as 7.5.
In terms of the relationship with activity, employed people valued their life more (7.7), followed by inactive people (7.5), and unemployed people valued it the least (6.9).
This indicator produced lower scores the worse a person's health and the older they were, whereas it improved the higher the level of education and the more frequently they had contact with their family.
The average for this indicator for the whole of the EU28 was 7.4 and as for the countries close to us, Spain and Portugal (7.5) valued life as much as the Basque Country, whilst France valued it slightly less (7.1).
Personal relationships were the second highest rated aspect (7.5)
The evaluation of personal relationships increased as the level of education, better economic situation of the household, health and closeness of family relationships improved. It achieved its highest score (7.7) among young people aged 16 to 24, and decreased as people got older, although in the group of 65 years and older there was a slight improvement (7.4).
Unemployed people (7.2) had worse personal relationships than those in employment (7.5) or inactive people (7.4), whilst there were no significant differences between men and women or province of residence.
As for place of birth, the lowest score was from the group of people born abroad (7.3).
Satisfaction with housing and surroundings was high across practically all the groups
For the satisfaction with housing and surroundings indicator (7.2), the best results came from people who declared themselves to be in very good health (7.5), followed by those who had a good economic situation (7.4) and those aged 65 and older (7.3). Men (7.2) were slightly more satisfied than women (7.1), and this was also the case for people born abroad, in Álava, or Gipuzkoa (7.2 for all three) compared with those born in Bizkaia (7.1).
Finally, the lowest score (6.7) came from unemployed people.
State of mind depended heavily on perceived health
The state of mind indicator, the average of which for the total population was 6.5, received a lower score among people with poor or very poor health (4.9) and a higher score among those who declared their health to be very good (7.0). The second lowest score was observed among unemployed people (5.8).
This indicator produced lower scores the worse a person's health was, whereas it improved the higher the level of education and the more frequently they had contact with their family.
At provincial level, people resident in Bizkaia (6.3) had the lowest score, as opposed to residents of Álava and Gipuzkoa, whose average reached 6.7. In terms of place of birth, those born within this province (6.4), along with those born abroad (6.2), were the ones that had a less positive state of mind.
This indicator obtained a higher score among men (6.9) than women (6.3) and, with regards to ages, people between 35 and 64 years old (6.4) felt worse than young people aged 16 to 24 (6.7) and those aged 65 and over (6.6).
Elderly people were the ones most satisfied with their leisure time
With an average satisfaction with leisure time of 6.5, people aged 65 and over gave the highest score (7.4) whilst those aged 35 to 49 gave the lowest (5.7). Inactive people also gave a good score (7.1) compared with 5.8 for those in work.
Women (6.4) were slightly less satisfied than men (6.5), which is also the case for people resident in Bizkaia (6.4) compared with those living in Álava and Gipuzkoa (6.6).
For this indicator, unlike the previous ones, the scores decreased as the level of education went up, going from 6.9 among people with no formal education to 6.2 among those who had a higher education.
Compared with other countries, in 2013 the level of satisfaction with leisure time for the overall population of the EU28 was 6.7. The highest scores were recorded in Denmark (7.8) and Finland (7.7) and the lowest in Bulgaria (5.7), whilst the score for Spain was 6.6, slightly higher than the Basque average.
Unemployed people were the least satisfied with their household economy
Regarding the satisfaction with the household economy indicator (6.4), the scores varied between a fail (4.3) for unemployed people and "good" (7.2) among those who consider their economic situation to be good.
Residents of Gipuzkoa were more satisfied (6.6) than residents of Álava (6.4) or Bizkaia (6.3), and those born in Gipuzkoa (6.8) were more satisfied than those born in Álava (6.5), Bizkaia (6.3) and, above all, those born abroad (5.6).
As for age, it was observed, curiously, that the group of young people aged 16 to 24 (6.7) were the most satisfied, followed by those 65 and over (6.4).
The score for this indicator increased when the level of education and perceived health increased.
The indicator of trust in people received a higher score among young people
The trust in people indicator (6.3) achieved its highest score (6.7) among people aged 16 to 24. Trust was "high" for 27.9% of the population, whilst it was "low" for 12.9%.
Women had as much trust as men (6.3), whilst people resident in Bizkaia (6.2) were less trusting than those in Álava and Gipuzkoa (6.4), and the lowest level of trust was found among unemployed people (5.9) and those whose level of health was from average to very poor (5.8).
The indicator of trust in the public authorities obtained the lowest result, below the "pass" level (3.4)
Only 1.3% of the population trusts the public authorities "a lot", compared with 69.2% who have "little" trust in them.
Although the public authorities did not achieve a "pass" from any of the population groups, it is worth mentioning that the highest score was obtained from people born abroad (4.2).
Trust among women (3.5) was slightly higher than among men (3.3) and, in terms of age, people between 25 and 34 years old (3.1) were the age group who had the least trust in the political and legal systems and the police.
Again, people with few family relationships (2.9) and the unemployed (3.0) were the groups who gave the lowest scores for this indicator.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tlf: 945 01 75 62