The Economic Crisis and its Effects on the Quality of Life in the European Union

The economic crisis to hit a number of countries, particularly European Union countries, since late 2007 has triggered many unpleasant effects that are still being felt today. Faced with such a situation, the question arises as to whether the negative economic consequences of the crisis have impacted the quality of life in said countries and to what extent. A further point of interest is to ascertain which countries have been most adversely affected and which have been able to weather the storm without serious difficulties. Comparing the quality of life in countries in 2007 and 2011 allows us to analyse and quantify the impact of the economic crisis on people’s quality of life. As expected, the conclusions to emerge from the study point to significant changes in both the individual as well as relative situation in European countries and evidence that in many, there has been a substantial decline in citizens’ quality of life. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015