英國獲評歐洲生活質量最差國家

British people have the worst quality of life in Europe, according to a report which highlights the long hours, bad weather, low life expectancy and high price of many consumer goods.

In a study of ten of the largest European countries, Britain comes last followed by Ireland, with France and Spain topping the table.

Though British households enjoy the highest income, at £35,730 a year, £10,325 higher than the European average, British families have to contend with a high cost of living, with fuel, food and alcohol all costing more than the European average.

With a litre of unleaded petrol at £1.08 a litre, the UK is the second most expensive country in Europe. However, diesel is more expensive in the UK than anywhere else in Europe – £1.13 a litre, which is 19p or 20 per cent above the European average of £0.94.

The report by price comparison website uSwitch analyses 10 European countries against 17 different benchmarks, from the price of gas, electricity, fuel, food and drink to the amount each country spends on education, health to working conditions and the weather.

The top three countries are France, Spain and Denmark, with Sweden, Ireland and Britain coming eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

The study comes less than a week after the United Nations moved Britain out of the top 20 list of most desirable countries to live in for the first time.

While France and Germany were initially hit hard by the global financial crisis, both have officially exited their recessions, while Britain has yet to confirm this has happened. Later this week, despite signs of recovery in the housing market and buoyant retail sales, there is expected to be grim economic news with unemployment predicted to have climbed to above 2.5 million for the first time since 1994.

一項最新報告稱，英國是歐洲生活質量最差的國家，這主要表現在該國的工作時間長、天氣惡劣、人均壽命短以及消費品價格昂貴。

該研究共對歐洲的十個大國進行了調查，英國排名最後，愛爾蘭次之。法國和西班牙被評爲生活質量最高的國家。

儘管英國的家庭年均收入最高，達35730英鎊，比歐洲平均水平高10325英鎊，但英國人的生活成本也很高，燃料、食品和酒類的價格均高於歐洲平均水平。

英國是歐洲第二大生活成本最高的國家，其無鉛汽油的價格每升1.08英鎊。而且英國的柴油價格居歐洲各國之首，每升1.13英鎊，比歐洲平均價格0.94英鎊高出19便士（相當於20%）。

價格比較網站uSwitch撰寫的這份報告依據17個不同指標對歐洲十個國家進行了分析，其中包括天然氣、電、燃料、食品和飲料的價格，各國的教育衛生支出以及工作環境和天氣狀況。

法國、西班牙和丹麥是生活質量最高的三個國家。瑞典、愛爾蘭和英國則分列排行榜最後三位。

這項報告公佈前不到一週，聯合國首次將英國踢出世界20大宜居國家排行。

儘管法國和德國最初受到全球金融危機的重創，但目前兩國已正式擺脫經濟衰退，而英國則尚未作出類似表態。儘管英國房地產市場出現回暖信號，零售業業績看漲，但即將於本週晚些時候公佈的經濟新聞仍不容樂觀。據悉，預計英國的失業人口數量自1994年以來首次超過250萬人。

Vocabulary:

life expectancy：人均壽命

contend with: 對付

buoyant：of or relating to a market in which prices have a tendency to move upward（看漲的；保持高價的；繁榮的）