Fight back against rip-off Britain

The UK and Ireland are the worst places to live in Europe. Find out how you can fight back...

With the last glimmers of summer fast disappearing, we’re all starting to prepare ourselves for the short days, dreary weather and gloomy winter months. And once the clocks go back in a few weeks, I really wouldn’t blame you for contemplating leaving the UK for sunnier climes – permanently.

However, if you think this sounds a tad dramatic, perhaps you’ll be interested to hear that according to the latest uSwitch Quality of Life Index, the UK and Ireland are the worst places to live in Europe! Meanwhile, the best quality of life can be found in France and Spain.

So just what is it that makes the UK and Ireland such terrible places to live? The fact that we’re all going to end up working until we have one foot in the grave? The long, cold, grey winter months? The short holidays? The high food prices?

Well, let’s find out...

European Quality of Life Index

The countries in the table below are listed in order of rank (1-10).

Countries	Total score	Net household income after taxes (GBP)	VAT – Goods and services (%)	Average working hours (hours per week)	House of sunshine (hours per year)	Retirement age (years)
France	6.47	£32,766	19.60	38	1,967	59.3
Spain	5.57	£24,228	18	38.8	2,665	62.6
Denmark	3.03	£39,997	25	33.7	1,706	61.3
Poland	2.76	£34,433	22	40.7	1,514	59.3
Germany	0.55	£35,379	19	35.7	1,573	61.7
Netherlands	0	£41,130	19	30.6	1,414	63.2
Sweden	-1.61	£33,019	25	36.3	1,702	63.8
Italy	-2.03	£25,503	20	38	2,356	60.8
UK	-7.13	£37,172	17.50	36.6	1,476	63.1
Ireland	-7.61	£44,955	21	35.3	1,397	64.1
Average		£34,858	21	36.37	1,777	61.975

Source: uSwitch

Countries	No. of holidays (days per year)	Education spending (% of GPB)	Health spending (% of GDP)	Fuel – Unleaded gasoline (GBP per litre)	Fuel – Diesel (GBP per litre)
France	36	5.60	11	1.168	0.982
Spain	43	4.30	8.40	0.998	0.913
Denmark	39	8.30	10.80	1.254	1.043
Poland	38	5.50	6.20	0.979	0.901
Germany	31	4.40	10.60	1.211	1.032
Netherlands	27	5.60	9.40	1.298	0.988
Sweden	38	7	9.20	1.148	1.062
Italy	32	4.80	9	1.183	1.044
UK	28	5.50	8.20	1.163	1.179
Ireland	32	4.90	7.50	1.114	1.035
Average	34.4	5.59	9.03	1.1516	1.0179

Source: uSwitch

Countries	Cost of gas (GBP per GJ)	Electricity cost (GBP per kWh)	Alcohol prices (GBP - Index)	Food prices (GBP)	Cigarette prices (GBP per pack)	Life expectancy (years)
France	11.601	0.0826	£81.39	£119.57	£4.80	81.09
Spain	13.054	0.1154	£62.80	£121.81	£2.70	80.18
Denmark	11.053	0.1105	£96.69	£125.16	£4.20	78.47
Poland	7.894	0.0787	£91.28	£129.74	£1.70	75.85
Germany	12.02	0.1249	£67.98	£120.40	£4	79.41
Netherlands	12.87	0.1284	£84.50	£119.94	£4.10	79.55
Sweden	12.479	0.0927	£121.26	£125.07	£4.50	80.97
Italy	12.625	0.1771	£85.23	£122.22	£3.20	80.33
UK	10.056	0.1247	£111.09	£137.13	£6.30	79.16
Ireland	14.053	0.1595	£151.72	£111.39	£7.20	78.41
Average	11.7705	0.11945	£95.39	£123.24	£4.27	79.342

Source: uSwitch

A closer look

So, as you can see, the UK and Ireland score pretty poorly. Last year, the UK had the highest net household income. However, this has since changed, and now we’ve fallen behind Ireland, Holland and Denmark.

Meanwhile, the UK also has to put up with a high cost of living. Food prices and the cost of diesel in the UK are the highest in Europe, while unleaded petrol, electricity, alcohol and cigarettes all cost above the European average.

And Ireland’s nearly as bad, with the highest prices in Europe for cigarettes, alcohol, electricity and gas – although food prices are the lowest in Europe and unleaded petrol prices are below the European average.

The bad news doesn’t end there, however. Not only do UK and Ireland dwellers have to put up with a high cost of living, we also have to work far longer than most of Europe. The Irish retirement age is the highest in Europe, while the UK retirement age is the fourth highest and is set to go higher.

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The UK also has fewer holidays, although our working hours aren’t as long as some. Workers in the UK are legally entitled to 28 days' holiday per year. Ireland is slightly higher at 32 days per year, while Spain enjoys 43 days of holiday per year, Denmark enjoys 39, and Poland and Sweden have 38 days off a year. Only the Netherlands has fewer days holiday than the UK at 27 days per year.

What’s more, the UK and Ireland’s spend on health and education is below the European average. We also witness fewer hours of sunshine than most of our European counterparts, and all of this contributes to the fact that we have a lower than average life expectancy. In fact, those of us in the UK can expect to die two years earlier than those people living in France, while those in Ireland can expect to die three years earlier.

Fight back

All of this makes for rather joyless reading. So if you weren’t initially thinking of emigrating, you might be now.

Not only do we have sky-high petrol, food, gas and electricity prices, we also don’t get to see as much sunshine, we work longer and we die earlier.

So just how can we fight back?

Unfortunately, I can’t control the age at which you retire, nor can I control when the sunshine decides to show its face. However, what I can do is tell you to keep reading lovemoney.com where you’ll be able to find numerous tips on how to boost your income as well as tips on how to slash those household bills!

Why not read 10 easy ways to become richer to get you started? And to help lower your household bills, take a look at the following:

And if you’re looking for bargain booze as well as fabulous food deals, check out our weekly Frugal Food blog which is packed full of bargains. And, if you're hoping to boost your life expectancy, check out Live longer with these budget tips.

Failing that, I’d start packing those bags!

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