1. Quality of Life in Ireland Presentation by Clive Brownlee, Diageo Ireland & Gerard O’Neill, Amárach Consulting 11 th March 2003

2. Structure of Presentation Background to Study The Goodness Index International Comparisons A Matter of Faith Talking Irish

3. Background to Study 2002 Report: ‘Quality of Life in Ireland’ Diageo Ireland: in the ‘Happiness Business’! Amárach Survey of 1,000 Adults Nationwide in late 2001 The Celtic Tiger: The Benefits and Costs of Change – we are richer but are we any happier? A new approach to measuring ‘quality of life’: The Goodness Index Updating the Index: 2003 Survey of 1,000 Adults Also - The Irish in Context: International Comparisons Also - The Changing Role of Religion in Irish Society

4. Money Can’t Buy Happiness … Source: Indices of GDP per capita as % of EU Average; and of % ‘Very Satisfied’ with life as a whole from Eurobarometer

5. Nobody Shouted Stop Is the rate of change in Irish Society … ? Source: Amárach Consulting 1995, & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

6. The Goodness Index

7. The challenge then is to look beneath the economic headlines and to identify the real drivers of quality of life and life satisfaction for people How did we do it?: We asked individuals to score their own quality of life out of 10 (where 1 was very poor, and 10 was very good) We then looked at their answers to a range of other questions and measured the relationship between their answers to these other questions and their own individual life quality score We found that most of the variation in answers to the question on quality of life in our survey could be explained by just four variables …

8. Explaining Quality of Life The variables, in order of importance, are: 1.How happy people say they are 2.How satisfied they are with their family life 3.How healthy people say they are 4.How satisfied people are with their financial circumstances We have now updated the Goodness Index to show the trend between 2001 and 2003

9. Building The Goodness Index The Goodness Index for Ireland Emotional Goodness: Family Goodness: Physical Goodness: Financial Goodness: 72.3 out of 100 in 2001 33% 25%24%18%

10. The Goodness Index: 2001-2003 Source: Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Surveys, 2001 & 2003

11. What Does This Tell Us? Despite the economic uncertainty since the first survey in 2001, Irish people have become more content with their quality of life as measured by The Goodness Index Most of the increase in the Index (on a weighted basis) can be explained by a strong increase in the proportion of people who say that – taking all things together – they are personally ‘very happy’ This reinforces the point made earlier, that there is only a limited connection between the wider state of the economy and peoples’ overall life satisfaction – in good times or bad!

12. International Comparisons

13. Since the development of The Goodness Index, a number of similar measures have been developed around the world The most interesting one is the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index which looks at two separate measures, namely: 1. the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) – how people feel about their own personal situation (similar to The Goodness Index), and 2. the National Wellbeing Index (NWI) – how people feel about the wider national situation Also survey based, the sample is asked to score a range of aspects of their lives and of the country from zero to 10, where zero means they are completely dissatisfied, and 10 means they are completely satisfied In a sense, we are comparing the wellbeing of the ‘motherland’ with the ‘diaspora’!

14. Personal Wellbeing Index Source: Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey 5, November 2002 & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

15. National Wellbeing Index Source: Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey 5, November 2002 & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

16. What Does This Tell Us? On balance, the Irish are as satisfied overall with their personal lives as Australians However, the Irish are generally less satisfied with ‘the state of nation’ than Australians – suggesting that there is a weaker connection between personal quality of life and national economic and social performance in Ireland Though some of the differences across the two measures of personal and national wellbeing are significant, the overall similarity in terms of drivers of wellbeing and life satisfaction are quite consistent – a legacy, perhaps, of the historical (and genetic!) connections between the two countries

17. A Matter of Faith

18. A defining feature of Irish culture and society has been the role of religion in everyday life It has also defined our national identity at home and abroad – Saint Patrick for example! We have used the Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey 2003 to take a brief look at the state of faith in Irish Society at the start of the 21 st Century

19. Faith of Our Fathers Which if any of the following do you believe in … ? Source: European Social Values Study, 1981; & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

20. The New Generation Gap Level of Satisfaction with your religion or spirituality: Source: Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey 5, November 2002 & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

21. The Faith of Nations Ireland Source: Pew Research Center, December 2002; Eurostat 2003; & Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Survey, 2003

22. A Crisis of Confidence % Having a Great Deal of Confidence in … Source: Diageo Ireland Quality of Life Surveys, 2001 & 2003

23. What Does This Tell Us? Ireland, like most developed countries, has experienced a sea change in religious values in recent decades – so we are not unique in that regard If anything we are now a more secular society than others we traditionally thought of as more secular than us: Britain, for example – and even Australia There is a wider context to some of the changes in Ireland – as evident by the decline in confidence in the Church; but it is too early to tell what long-term effects these institutional changes will have on personal belief systems and peoples’ own satisfaction with religion in their lives

24. Talking Irish

25. Despite the doom and gloom of the headlines, the Irish at the start of the 21 st Century are still enjoying a good quality of life We even enjoy a similar sense of personal wellbeing as the Australians - despite our weather! But we seem uneasy with the state of our nation in general; and with the performance of some of our national institutions in particular A challenge for this Symposium is to determine whether our personal contentment and optimism can be a force for change at a national and international level – or a force for conservatism Nevertheless, if we can find a way to export our happiness as effectively as we export our goods (and previously, our people), then the future looks bright indeed for Ireland and the Irish

26. Measure Your Own Goodness Index! www.amarach.com

27. THANK YOU Quality of Life in Ireland Presentation by Clive Brownlee, Diageo Ireland & Gerard O’Neill, Amárach Consulting