Cohabitation – couples living together without being married – is on the rise in Europe. Eurofound’s calculations of EU data shows that France (13%), Sweden (13%) and Finland (12%) recorded the highest co-habitation rates in the EU in 2017.
Estonia reports substantial increases to life satisfaction and happiness levels over the last fifteen years and optimism for the future is high with 69% feeling optimistic for their children’s or grandchildren’s future - above the EU average of 57%. Coupled with this, the perceived quality of public services has improved with childcare and public transport seeing the greatest increases.
A new analysis of EU-level data by Eurofound shows that one in three households in the EU is now single occupancy. Germany now has the largest proportion of the population living in single-person households, and large increases in the share of the population living alone have been reported in Lithuania and Bulgaria.
Lithuania has experienced significant improvements to the perceived quality of public services and overall living standards in recent years. However, despite overall increases to quality of living standards, income inequality has been increasing since the financial crisis, making Lithuania’s income distribution the second most unequal in the EU.
People living in the capital cities in Europe generally have a better quality of life and report higher life satisfaction than those living in other parts of the country. Capital cities also have a larger proportion of people who report feeling being able to cope during times of hardship than other urban centres and rural regions.
As one of their ‘100 days in office’ initiatives, the new European Commission intends to propose an initiative for an EU minimum wage. The aim is that by 2024 every worker in the EU should earn a fair and adequate wage, no matter where they live. And despite the Commission’s assurance that this would not alter national traditions of wage-setting, emotions are already running high
Finland reports some of the highest quality of life standards across the EU with happiness, life satisfaction and trust ranking top across the EU28 – to name just a few areas of high performance.
A common understanding of labour market segmentation is necessary to tackle poor quality jobs with lack of opportunities, affecting especially young people, women, immigrants and lower-educated individuals on the labour market. A new ambitious report explores why segmentation is problematic and identifies policy approaches which could be helpful in tackling this phenomenon.
As Romania celebrates its national day on Sunday, we mark the occasion by sharing our research and analysis to provide a snapshot of current living and working conditions.
First-generation migrants in the EU are significantly more likely to have attained tertiary qualifications than natives and second-generation migrants. However, first-generation migrant workers are also more likely to have primary education only, compared to the native population. This shows that educational attainment is more polarised.
First-generation migrant workers are 10 times more likely to report experiencing discrimination linked to race, ethnic background or colour than native workers; second-generation migrants are five times more likely. Overall, just 2% of workers reported discrimination on these grounds in the European Working Conditions Survey, but for those that are first-generation migrants this climbed to 10%.
Eurofound research shows that people with disabilities were more likely to be in employment in 2016 than in 2011. This is particularly the case for people with disabilities that have a third-level education. Despite these improvements, there remains a significant employment gap between people with and without disabilities.
Second-generation migrants with an EU background are more likely to be employed and in high-performing positions, such as managerial roles, than first-generation migrants – and even outperform natives in terms of employment rate.
Quality of life in Latvia has improved significantly in recent years with the share of people struggling to make ends meet reducing from 76% in 2003 to 52% in 2016. At the same time, self-reported life satisfaction increased from 5.6 in 2003 to 6.3 in 2016 and happiness levels from 6.5 to 7.0.
Eurofound’s Management Board has adopted an ambitious work programme for the organisation for 2020, the last of the current multiannual programme for 2017-2020
The number of people in Poland struggling to make ends meet has halved to 39% since the country’s membership of the EU and the share of people at risk of poverty has decreased to 18.9% in 2018 – below the EU average of 21.7%.
While high-quality childcare and early education is of growing importance, both for children’s development and for facilitating women’s access to the labour market, Eurofound’s research shows that cost is an issue for four out of ten users of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in the EU.
The high levels of reliance on informal care across EU Member States - with 15% or more of care being provided on an informal basis in countries such as Belgium, France, Latvia and Romania – comes with significant social and economic costs for both carers and society, including loss of employment, social protection expenditure, social isolation and the healthcare needs of informal carers.
Czechia records the lowest rates of those at risk of poverty and social exclusion across the EU at just 12.2% – considerably below the EU average of 21.7%. The number of people reporting difficulties in making ends meet has also decreased from 52% in 2011 to 40% in 2016 and perceived quality of public services has improved to be in line with EU averages.
Austria has one of the highest female part-time rates in the EU. This is linked largely to a heavy reliance on informal care where 80% of those in need of long-term care are being cared for informally by a family member. The high level of part-time work (47.9% of women compared to just 8.1% of men) has significant consequences for Austria’s gender pay gap.
