EQLS 2016 language versions
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European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS)
Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) documents living conditions and people’s social situation, and explores issues pertinent to the lives of European citizens.
European Quality of Life Survey 2016
Eurofound’s fourth European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), launched in 2016, documents living conditions and people’s social situation, and explores issues pertinent to the lives of European citizens. The EQLS 2016 placed a considerable focus on public services: healthcare, long-term care, childcare and schools, and measuring different aspects of quality such as fair access, facilities, staff and information available to citizens. The findings provide detailed information on a broad range of issues in three main areas:
Quality of life: subjective well-being, optimism, health, standard of living and aspects of deprivation, work–life balance
Quality of society: social insecurity, perception of social exclusion and societal tensions, trust in people and institutions, participation and community engagement, and involvement in training/life-long learning
Quality of public services: health-care, long-term care, childcare and other public services.
The survey was carried out between September 2016 and March 2017.
Around 37,000 people in 33 countries were interviewed, including the EU8
Interviews were conducted face to face in people’s homes using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI).
The questionnaire was adapted into 37 languages and contains 104 questions with a total of 262 items.
To display this data, use the filters below to select a question. Refine the results by selecting a country (or group of countries), apply additional filters (which vary throughout the surveys) or change the visualisation by selecting a preferred chart type.
Dashboard
EQLS 2016 dashboard
Overall, the EQLS 2016 results show general progress in the three key areas of review: quality of life, quality of society and quality of public services – though not in all countries and not for all social groups.
There has been general progress in quality of life with some dimensions back to pre-crisis levels. For example, levels of optimism are up since the previous survey, satisfaction with living standards has increased, and life satisfaction and happiness levels remain stable. Satisfaction with standard of living has converged across Member States, self-reported quality of health has improved overall, and material hardship has declined (more people can make ends meet). But work-life balance has deteriorated and there are serious concerns about insufficient income in old age in two-thirds of countries.
The findings reveal a general improvement in quality of society indicators since 2011. Trust in national institutions has increased, engagement and participation in social organisations are on the rise, trust in people among those aged 18–24 has increased, feelings of social exclusion have declined, and perceived tensions between poor/rich, management/workers, old/young, men/women have decreased. Yet, perception of tensions between religious and ethnic groups has risen slightly and, to a lesser extent, on the basis of sexual orientation.
The data also show an overall improvement in ratings of quality of public services since the last survey round. Levels of satisfaction with several key public services, such as healthcare and public transport, have increased. Childcare has improved in several countries where ratings were previously low. Access to recycling facilities is a new issue in a number of countries, while access to banking in rural areas is a problem in some countries. However, quality of public services still varies greatly across Member States.
This section provides further information targeted in particular at researchers.
The following publications were produced in relation to the EQLS 2016.
Methodology
In the EQLS series, Eurofound aims to collect comparable and reliable data on quality of life across Europe. The methodology has been incrementally improved over time based on lessons learnt and new developments which reflect the state-of-the-art in survey methodology.
Contractor
Kantar Public, Belgium
Coverage
28 EU Member States and Albania, North Macedonia (formerly the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey
Fieldwork period
September 2016 to February 2017 in the EU28; November 2016 to March 2017 in the candidate countries
Target population
Residents of the countries mentioned above aged 18 or older
Sample
Multi-stage, stratified, random sample in each country. Depending on the availability of high-quality registers, sampling was carried out using individual-level, household-level and address-level registers or through enumeration using a random-walk approach. Country-level samples were stratified by region and degree of urbanisation. In each stratum, primary sampling units (PSUs) were randomly selected proportional to population size. Subsequently, a random sample of individuals or households was drawn in each PSU. Finally, unless individual-level registers were used, in each household the respondent was randomly selected.
Sample size
In most countries, the target sample size was 1,000. To reflect the larger populations in certain countries, the target was increased to 1,300 in the UK, 1,600 in Germany and 2,000 in Turkey. Eurofound also offered countries the opportunity to top up their sample. This offer was taken up by Italy, which led to a target sample size of 2,000 in that country. The total sample size for the EQLS 2016 in all 33 countries was 36,908 interviews.
Type
Questionnaire-based with interviews conducted face to face, at the respondent’s home in the national language(s) of the country; average duration of the interview was 40 minutes in the EU28 and 35 minutes in the candidate countries.
Quality assurance
Eurofound surveys subscribe to the quality criteria of the European Statistical System as developed by Eurostat. A large number of quality checks were applied by Eurofound and its contractor during preparation and implementation of the survey to ensure a high-quality outcome.
A high-quality questionnaire is a key element of a successful survey. Therefore, Eurofound invests heavily in the development and translation of its questionnaires.
Questionnaire development
A total of 104 questions and 262 items are available in the EQLS 2016. The questionnaire from the previous survey was reviewed in consultation with both policy stakeholders and experts in survey research. Some 66% of the EQLS 2011 questionnaire was kept as trend questions, while 51% of the EQLS 2016 questionnaire is comparable with earlier rounds.
With a considerable focus on public services, the EQLS 2016 questionnaire was also revised to improve the placement of subjective well-being items so that they were asked at the beginning of the interview before reflections on other topics could potentially affect responses.
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Unique questionnaire items were reviewed and evaluated for their content validity, face validity, reliability, clarity and ease of use, risk of generating biased results, and overall relevance for quality of life research. As a result of the review, each item received a recommendation. They were recommended to be kept in their present form, to be modified or to be dropped. Several new items were also added to the questionnaire. The quality assessment of questions and subsequent recommendations can be found in the quality assessment report.
Working paper: European Quality of Life Survey 2016: Quality Assessment
The EQLS 2016 source questionnaire was translated or adapted into 37 language versions across the 28 EU countries, and 8 language versions in 5 non-EU countries.
The following languages are available:
| Survey country | Languages | Survey country | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | German | Italy | Italian |
| Belgium | French, Dutch | Latvia | Latvian, Russian |
| Bulgaria | Bulgarian | Lithuania | Lithuanian |
| Croatia | Croatian | Luxembourg | Luxembourgish, French, German |
| Cyprus | Greek | Malta | Maltese, English |
| Czech Republic | Czech | Netherlands | Dutch |
| Denmark | Danish | Poland | Polish |
| Estonia | Estonian, Russian | Portugal | Portuguese |
| Finland | Finnish, Swedish | Romania | Romanian, Hungarian |
| France | French | Slovakia | Slovakian |
| Germany | German | Slovenia | Slovenian |
| Greece | Greek | Spain | Spanish, Catalan |
| Hungary | Hungarian | Sweden | Swedish |
| Ireland | English | United Kingdom | English |
| Survey country | Languages | Survey country | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Albanian | Serbia | Serbian, Hungarian |
| North Macedonia | Albanian, Macedonian | Turkey | Turkish |
| Montenegro | Montenegrin, Serbian |
Eurofound experts
You can contact the following experts for questions on the survey.
Daphne Ahrendt
Senior research managerSocial policies research
Daphne Ahrendt is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. She is the coordinator of the survey management and development activity. In 2020, she initiated Eurofound’s Living and Working in the EU e-survey and now leads the 2026 European Quality of Life Survey, which she has worked on since the survey started in 2003. With over 30 years of experience in international survey research, she is also a member of the GESIS Scientific Advisory Board. Beyond surveys, her substantive research focuses on social cohesion, trust and the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Daphne started her career at the National Centre for Social Research in London where she worked on the International Social Survey Programme before moving to the Eurobarometer Unit at the European Commission. She holds a Master's degree in Criminal Justice Policies from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University.
Eszter Sándor
Senior research managerSocial policies research
Eszter Sandor is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. She has extensive experience in survey management, including questionnaire design and scripting, data preparation (processing, cleaning, weighting), and statistical analysis using R. She manages Eurofound’s e-survey (Living and working in the EU) and contributes to the preparation and management of the European Quality of Life Survey. Her research focuses on the quality of life of young people and families, including subjective well-being, mental well-being and living conditions.
Before joining Eurofound, she worked as an economic consultant in Scotland, specialising in economic impact assessments, evaluations, and input-output analysis. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics and Business and a Master’s degree in Economics and International Relations from Corvinus University of Budapest.
