Regional Quality of Living in Europe

A wide divergence in regional scores could be observed for some countries, such as Italy and Spain, with more southerly regions ranking lower than those in the north. Another conclusion is that the regions where the capital city was found offered a better Quality of Living. Exceptions to this were seen in Germany, Belgium and Rumania.

Regional Quality of Living Index of European regions

A Regional Quality of Living Index (RQI) was developed for benchmarking European regions. This RQI for non-business-related indicators may help to improve the attractiveness of regions, thus attracting people or companies to settle in those regions. Data from reliable sources were collected and aggregated to NUTS2 level to match data from other studies on European regions. Finally, 25 indicators in 9 categories were calculated to determine the RQI score and ranking of European NUTS2 regions.

Quality of Living in the Netherlands good in comparison

A benchmark comparison of Dutch regions and the average scores of the best 25 European regions (Best in Europe; in terms of GDP per capita) revealed the strengths and weaknesses of Dutch regions with regard to the Quality of Living. Most of the Dutch regions have remarkably better scores than the ‘Best in Europe’ for Public services, Recreation and Education and similar scores for Social environment, Health and, Purchasing power and employment. The scores for Housing and Natural Environment for almost all Dutch regions were lower than for the Best in Europe. The RQI can be used to benchmark the Quality of Living in European regions, and could play a role in achieving Dutch policy ambitions to elevate Dutch regions to the top 10 most competitive economic regions in the world.