Money doesn't buy happiness. According to a new survey Irish people are less happy than they were a year ago, despite being financially better off. The "Quality of Life in Ireland" survey by Amarach consultancy for the drinks company Diageo was published yesterday.
The annual survey monitors the quality of life of Irish citizens in relation to what it calls the Goodness Index. It shows that levels of satisfaction with quality of life have increased since 2001 but, a different survey conducted in 2003 indicates that these levels have fallen in the past year.
The survey measured the levels of satisfaction of 1,000 Irish citizens regarding four key aspects of lives. Using a system which scores answers out of a possible 100, the report recorded quality of life improving from 72.3 in 2001 to 74.9 in 2004. But the 2003 figure - not published in yesterday's report but contained in last year's survey - was 75.2.
A spokesman for Amarach said it would have complicated yesterday's report to include the 2003 figures, and comparisons with 2001 showed more interesting long-term trends.
While financial satisfaction increased by 5.7 per cent between 2003 and 2004, participants rated their levels of personal happiness as having decreased. Twenty-seven per cent of participants say that the pace of change in Ireland is too fast, compared with 21 per cent in 2001 and 10 per cent in 1995. Half the population reports they suffer from stress.
Levels of trust in some institutions have also decreased. Only 14 per cent of participants now trust the Gardaí, compared with 23 per cent in 2001. Meanwhile 9 per cent of people trust the church compared with 18 per cent in 2001, while a mere 5 per cent trust the legal profession compared to 12 per cent in 2001.
The 2004 survey also reveals that people are happier in the North than in the Republic. Forty-eight per cent of people in the North consider themselves "very happy" in comparison to only 38 per cent in the Republic.
People in the North also express higher levels of satisfaction regarding their family lives, but people in the Republic are happier with their health.