Not only spring (the equinox starts today at 17,57) but also and above all World Happiness Day. At least according to the UN, which since 2012 has established March 20 as a day to celebrate well-being and happiness as universal aspirations of the human person and therefore fundamental objectives of public policies.
And while a curious ranking drawn up on the basis of tweets on Twitter has surprisingly elected Genoa as the happiest city in Italy, Eurostat has just today published ten indicators that analyze the various aspects of the quality of life complementary to the one normally used for comparisons i.e. GDP per capita. In fact, happiness is not just about money, and the European Statistical Institute has taken this into account.
But how is Italy doing? Not as bad as one might think, despite the not exactly prosperous period. The first item, which is immediately significant, is that of the percentage of people who are unable to face unexpected expenses. Almost anyone, reading these lines, will think they are included in the count, instead according to the data only 42,5% of us are: a still high percentage, but in line with the Eurozone average (40,2%) and better of the United Kingdom (42,9%). The worst are the Hungarians, the best equipped the Swedes.
The performance of the boot on other items is also average, such as that of homicides (1 per 100 inhabitants, EU-28 average of 1,1), the ratio between the richest 20% of the population and the poorest 20% (5,5 .5,1% against 7,2% of the Eurozone average while Spain does much worse with 1%) and of the general satisfaction with life on a scale from 10 to 6,9, which sees the beautiful country gaining the full pass with a 7,1 close to 28 of the 8 partner countries. On the podium, with votes from XNUMX upwards, the classic Scandinavian trio Denmark-Finland-Sweden.
But what is most surprising is Italy's competitiveness in the per capita GDP ranking, which calculated on a purchasing power parity sees Luxembourg dominate and Italy do exactly like the continental average with 25.600 euros against 25.500. Spain is slightly below, while the worst is, again according to Eurostat data, Bulgaria with 12.000 euros. Then there are two items in which the boot is even more than respected: as is known, on life expectancy, the highest together with that of Spain (82,5 years) and ahead of that of France (the least long-lived country is instead Lithuania, where people die at the age of 74); and then, somewhat surprisingly, on the percentage difference between men's and women's wages. In Italy it is at 6,7%, the fourth lowest figure in Europe, and clearly below the average which still sees a 16,4% difference between men's and women's wages: the most equal country is Slovenia, the most “ male chauvinist” Estonia.
There are, however, the usual sore points. First of all, pollution: in terms of concentrations of Pm10 (fine particles) in major cities, Italy does better only than Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia and Hungary. Even industrialized and urbanized countries like France and Germany are much better than us. Then the median income, which even sees us behind Cyprus and slightly ahead of Malta: in this case there is no European parameter, but our average income reads 15.600 euros, against 26 and more in Luxembourg, 19 in Cyprus, the 18.700 in France, the 17.636 in the United Kingdom.
Finally, school and unemployment. The Italian school dropout rate is among the highest on the continent, just behind Spain (dramatically at 25%), Malta and Portugal, completing a leading quartet that couldn't be more Mediterranean. Greece is also doing much better than us (17,6%) (about 11%), while the most virtuous European country is just across the Adriatic Sea: Croatia, with 4,2% of young people who do not complete the school process. The unfailing data on the unemployment rate closes the ranking of (un)happiness, in this case intelligently limited to the long-term unemployment rate (over 12 consecutive months): Greece (14,4%) and Spain (11,1%) command ) but Italy registers a 5,7% which places it above the EU-28 average (4,7%). In this case the best, or so to speak the happiest, are our Austrian neighbours: with them, only 1 person in 100 has been without a job for too long.
