Lifestyle 'is better in Poland than Britain': Less crime and violence - and it's cheaper too

• Just 5 per cent of Britons describe themselves as happy
• Poland, France, Spain and Italy all have less material wealth, but fared better than the UK

The quality of life in Britain is the worst in Europe – lower even than Poland, because of crime, violence and the high cost of living.
A study puts the UK at the bottom of a league of ten nations, even though some of them have much lower incomes.
Households in countries such as Poland, France, Spain and Italy all have less material wealth but are considerably happier with life.

 
Only 5 per cent of Britons describe themselves as happy, while 10 per cent would like to emigrate.
The league is based on 16 factors including net income, VAT, the cost of essential goods such as fuel, food and energy, as well as lifestyle considerations such as hours of sunshine, holiday entitlement, working hours and life expectancy.
‘Long working hours, the lowest number of days holiday a year and a high retirement age paint a bleak picture for those in the UK,’ said the uSwitch.com price comparison website, which carried out the study.
‘We also suffer the most expensive food and diesel prices along with higher-than-average petrol costs, while enjoying almost the lowest amount of sunshine.’

The good life: Polish city Warsaw. The average retirement age in Poland is 59, four years lower than in Britain. Workers also have ten days more holiday

Beautiful, but 'broken': London's Southbank. 59 per cent of those polled were worried about a breakdown in society, demonstrated by the summer's riots

Some 59 per cent of those polled were worried about a ‘broken society’, as demonstrated by the summer riots in many towns and cities.
Forty-nine per cent listed the rising cost of living as a burden, while 47 per cent were worried about the levels of crime and violence.
UK average net household income is put at £38,547, well ahead of the £31,767 in France, £25,601 in Italy, £23,398 in Spain and just £8,759 in Poland.
However, the quality of life is said to be better in all these other nations.
France comes out top for the third year in a row, ahead of Spain and Italy, while Poland is ranked seventh. Britons enjoy an average of 28 days holiday a year, which compares with 36 in France, 38 in Poland and Sweden, and 39 in Spain.
The average retirement age in the UK is put at 63, although it will rise in the coming years.
This compares with 59 in Poland, and around 60 in France and Italy.
Spending on health in the UK is put at 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product, which is below the average for the ten countries of 5.54 per cent.
The figure is as high as 7.6 per cent in Sweden and 8.4 per cent in Denmark.
Cynics will say the only  bright point is that average British life expectancy is  lower than in many other nations, which means our  misery will be curtailed.
The average Briton lives for 80.4 years, versus 81.4 in France, 81.6 in Italy and 81.9  in Spain.
The figure in Poland is considerably lower at 76.2.