Multidimensional Assessment of Quality of Life in the EU Member States
Multidimensional Assessment of Quality of Life in the EU Member States

Summary/Abstract: The standard of living is a complex concept determined by many factors. Quality of life is the essence of human existence. Human needs and their “balanced” fulfilment constitute its key element. The inability to satisfy these needs generates frustration and leads to “unhappiness”. The paper shows quality of life from a multidimensional perspective by selecting economic, demographic, environmental and safety-related factors to describe this phenomenon. The aim of the paper is to assess the diversity of quality of life in the EU Member States on the basis of a synthetic measure. Additionally, statistical verification of 13 diagnostic variables selected for measuring quality of life is the subject of the analysis. The resulting ranking of countries was created based on the values of a synthetic measure developed using the Hellwig method. The proposed synthetic measure focuses on showing the objective character of quality of life. All data needed to conduct the study come from public statistics derived from the Eurostat database for two periods – 2009 and 2015. The results of the analysis conducted indicate that the Scandinavian countries offer the best standard of living.

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