About the EU reduction: nine out of ten Austrians are satisfied with life

About the EU reduction: nine out of ten Austrians are satisfied with life

VIENNA. The reasons are a higher survival rate for diseases such as cancer and lower poverty. This is from the new study "How's Austria?" Statistics Austria.

Image: Colourbox

How is Austria? Statistics Austria asked this question in its new study. The answer: basically good. Nine out of ten Austrians are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives. Material wealth and survival rates for diseases such as cancer are increasing and the number of people at risk of poverty is below the EU average. It is necessary to catch up in the areas of the environment and housing costs.

Almost 38% of Austrians say they are very satisfied with their lives, 17% more than in comparison with the EU. To the question "How satisfied are you with your life?" Only 10.6% of the 12,876 respondents in the previous year responded "low". At 18.1% in 2017, the proportion of people at risk of poverty was also well below the EU average of 22.5%.

Survival rate up

Factors such as "social participation" and "subjective well-being" are also part of the quality of life. The study shows that the unemployed have a much lower unemployment rate than full-time and part-time employees. In addition, since 2000, "there has been a drift in the low and high incomes of the self-employed," says the six-legged expert panel of the study. The richest 20 percent of incomes have about 4.3 times more money than the poorest 20 percent. However, it is encouraging that the pay gap between men and women is gradually narrowing.

The special reason for the joy is the health of the Austrians. Since 2000, "early mortality from noncommunicable diseases", including cancer, has decreased by 35%.

However, the overrun of housing costs was badessed negatively. This describes the proportion of the population that spends more than 40% of household income on shelter costs – ie Rent, operating costs, heating. Since 2008, the value has increased by 1% to reach 7.1%.

Graphic: How is Austria?

PDF file (2.37 MBytes.)

Excessive emissions of greenhouse gases

Between 2000 and 2016, energy consumption in transport increased by 31.7%, which is well above the EU average of 6.6%. Greenhouse gas emissions are also "too high". The group of experts in the study indicated that the value of 50.6 million tons in 2016 was "only slightly lower than the maximum permitted by the law on climate protection (Climate Protection Act) of 51 million tonnes "

Negatively, land use was also badessed. Although the number of organic farming areas has almost doubled (22.4% in 2017), the daily use of construction and transport areas has averaged 12.9 hectares per day. 2014 to 2017

However, Statistics Austria's Alexandra Wegscheider-Pichler can not say how the trend will continue. "We are evaluating past years and have no predictions." (Sc)

View Comments »