Quality of Life in Ireland

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Quality of Life in Ireland

• Presentation by Clive Brownlee, Diageo Ireland
  Gerard ONeill, Amárach Consulting

11th March 2003
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Structure of Presentation

• Background to Study
• The Goodness Index
• International Comparisons
• A Matter of Faith
• Talking Irish

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Background to Study

• 2002 Report Quality of Life in Ireland
• Diageo Ireland in the Happiness Business!
• Amárach Survey of 1,000 Adults Nationwide in late
  2001
• The Celtic Tiger The Benefits and Costs of
  Change we are richer but are we any happier?
• A new approach to measuring quality of life
  The Goodness Index
• Updating the Index 2003 Survey of 1,000 Adults
• Also - The Irish in Context International
  Comparisons
• Also - The Changing Role of Religion in Irish
  Society

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Money Cant Buy Happiness
Source Indices of GDP per capita as of EU
Average and of Very Satisfied with life as
a whole from Eurobarometer
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Nobody Shouted Stop
Is the rate of change in Irish Society ?
Source Amárach Consulting 1995, Diageo
Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003
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The Goodness Index
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The Goodness Index

• The challenge then is to look beneath the
  economic headlines and to identify the real
  drivers of quality of life and life satisfaction
  for people
• How did we do it?
• We asked individuals to score their own quality
  of life out of 10 (where 1 was very poor, and 10
  was very good)
• We then looked at their answers to a range of
  other questions and measured the relationship
  between their answers to these other questions
  and their own individual life quality score
• We found that most of the variation in answers to
  the question on quality of life in our survey
  could be explained by just four variables

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Explaining Quality of Life

• The variables, in order of importance, are
• How happy people say they are
• How satisfied they are with their family life
• How healthy people say they are
• How satisfied people are with their financial
  circumstances
• We have now updated the Goodness Index to show
  the trend between 2001 and 2003

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Building The Goodness Index
72.3 out of 100in 2001
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18
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The Goodness Index 2001-2003
Source Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Surveys,
2001 2003
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What Does This Tell Us?

• Despite the economic uncertainty since the first
  survey in 2001, Irish people have become more
  content with their quality of life as measured by
  The Goodness Index
• Most of the increase in the Index (on a weighted
  basis) can be explained by a strong increase in
  the proportion of people who say that taking
  all things together they are personally very
  happy
• This reinforces the point made earlier, that
  there is only a limited connection between the
  wider state of the economy and peoples overall
  life satisfaction in good times or bad!

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International Comparisons
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International Comparisons

• Since the development of The Goodness Index, a
  number of similar measures have been developed
  around the world
• The most interesting one is the Australian Unity
  Wellbeing Index which looks at two separate
  measures, namely
• the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) how people
  feel about their own personal situation (similar
  to The Goodness Index), and
• the National Wellbeing Index (NWI) how people
  feel about the wider national situation
• Also survey based, the sample is asked to score a
  range of aspects of their lives and of the
  country from zero to 10, where zero means they
  are completely dissatisfied, and 10 means they
  are completely satisfied
• In a sense, we are comparing the wellbeing of the
  motherland with the diaspora!

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Personal Wellbeing Index
Source Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey
5, November 2002 Diageo Ireland Quality of Life
Survey, 2003
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National Wellbeing Index
Source Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey
5, November 2002 Diageo Ireland Quality of Life
Survey, 2003
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What Does This Tell Us?

• On balance, the Irish are as satisfied overall
  with their personal lives as Australians
• However, the Irish are generally less satisfied
  with the state of nation than Australians
  suggesting that there is a weaker connection
  between personal quality of life and national
  economic and social performance in Ireland
• Though some of the differences across the two
  measures of personal and national wellbeing are
  significant, the overall similarity in terms of
  drivers of wellbeing and life satisfaction are
  quite consistent a legacy, perhaps, of the
  historical (and genetic!) connections between the
  two countries

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A Matter of Faith
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A Matter of Faith

• A defining feature of Irish culture and society
  has been the role of religion in everyday life
• It has also defined our national identity at home
  and abroad Saint Patrick for example!
• We have used the Diageo Ireland Quality of Life
  Survey 2003 to take a brief look at the state of
  faith in Irish Society at the start of the 21st
  Century

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Faith of Our Fathers
Which if any of the following do you believe in
?
Source European Social Values Study, 1981
Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003
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The New Generation Gap
Level of Satisfaction with your religion or
spirituality
Source Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey
5, November 2002 Diageo Ireland Quality of Life
Survey, 2003
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The Faith of Nations
Source Pew Research Center, December 2002
Eurostat 2003 Diageo Ireland Quality of Life
Survey, 2003
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A Crisis of Confidence
Having a Great Deal of Confidence in
Source Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Surveys,
2001 2003
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What Does This Tell Us?

• Ireland, like most developed countries, has
  experienced a sea change in religious values in
  recent decades so we are not unique in that
  regard
• If anything we are now a more secular society
  than others we traditionally thought of as more
  secular than us Britain, for example and even
  Australia
• There is a wider context to some of the changes
  in Ireland as evident by the decline in
  confidence in the Church but it is too early to
  tell what long-term effects these institutional
  changes will have on personal belief systems and
  peoples own satisfaction with religion in their
  lives

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Talking Irish
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Talking Irish

• Despite the doom and gloom of the headlines, the
  Irish at the start of the 21st Century are still
  enjoying a good quality of life
• We even enjoy a similar sense of personal
  wellbeing as the Australians - despite our
  weather!
• But we seem uneasy with the state of our nation
  in general and with the performance of some of
  our national institutions in particular
• A challenge for this Symposium is to determine
  whether our personal contentment and optimism can
  be a force for change at a national and
  international level or a force for conservatism
• Nevertheless, if we can find a way to export our
  happiness as effectively as we export our goods
  (and previously, our people), then the future
  looks bright indeed for Ireland and the Irish

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Measure Your Own Goodness Index!
www.amarach.com
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THANK YOU
Quality of Life in Ireland

• Presentation by Clive Brownlee, Diageo Ireland
  Gerard ONeill, Amárach Consulting