To the question “how is life in Greece?” the OECD tries to answer, giving an x-ray of everyday life, based on 80 indicators of well-being. Greece’s profile is reflected in this year’s annual report of the OECD on global well-being, with comparative results compared to previous years as well as the other 34 member countries of the Organization that participated in the survey.
OECD source: Sectors with negative performance are marked with an asterisk
A first taste is offered by the “wheel of well-being”, which shows the strengths and weaknesses of our country based on 11 components: Income and wealth, housing, work and employment quality, health, knowledge and skills, environmental quality, subjective well-being, security, work-life balance, social relationships and civic engagement.
The disappointing thing is that Greece has a negative performance, i.e. below the average of the OECD countries, in at least one sub-indicator from each component: In income inequalities, households with excessive space constraints, the wage gap between men and women, overtime, exposure to extreme temperatures, participation in elections.
The only area in which we excel, out of the OECD ‘pie’, is social interactions, showing if nothing else that we remain an outgoing people.
OECD: Environment
The OECD’s analysis of Greece begins with an assessment of the country’s performance in terms of the available resources necessary for the country’s future prosperity, such as natural, economic and social capital. The OECD compares today, with the indicators of 2010, and records in which areas there has been an improvement and where there has been a deterioration
As far as natural capital is concerned, Greece shows improvement in two of the three sub-indicators: Per capita emissions decreased, from 10,700 tons to 7,300 tons of carbon dioxide per inhabitant. The use of Renewable Energy Sources in the country’s energy mix also increased spectacularly. From 8.6% in 2010 it more than doubled to 16.6%. Where there was a deterioration, it was in endangered animal species, which increased. The encouraging thing is that in all three indicators of natural capital, Greece is graded in yellow – that is, it is in the middle category of OECD countries.
Economic deterioration – The OECD report
However, Greece’s performance was negative compared to 2010 in the indicators of financial capital, with public debt increasing from 94% to 134% of GDP, while the formation of fixed capital, i.e. investments, decreased significantly from 97,000 dollars by per capita, in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) at 78,000 dollars.
The only indicator of financial capital that improved is household debt, which fell to 86% of net disposable income – when in 2010 it exceeded disposable income (107%).
Greece ranks last among the OECD countries in terms of social capital. Our country has a consistently disappointing performance in gender equality in politics, as only 21% of legislators and elected officials are women, the same as in 2010. Trust in governments is low, with 7 out of 10 not trusting it they trust – a percentage almost the same as in the year of “Kastelorizos” when the country was put under memorandum supervision.
The index of trust in other people has worsened, with the majority of citizens declaring that they are suspicious.
source: OECD – Greece is at the bottom of the OECD wage list, after Mexico
Income – Salary
Greece is one of the worst performers in terms of wages, with the third worst wage among the 35 countries, after Mexico and Colombia – very close to Slovakia and Hungary.
Compared to 2019, the OECD records that real wages fell in 2023 in 20 of the 35 countries in the sample – a result of the pandemic crisis and inflation.
In Greece, however, the real ones record the biggest deterioration between 2010-2019, but also a worsening between 2019-2022 (4th lowest position after the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Germany).
Greece also has by far the highest percentage of citizens struggling to make ends meet, behind Mexico, Slovakia and Turkey. Over 65% of citizens experience financial hardship, a higher percentage than in 2010, but slightly improved compared to 2019.
The Greeks, however, record one of the lowest rates of satisfaction with their lives in the OECD. In 2023, Greece remains 4th from the end in the satisfaction index among 35 OECD countries. But between 2019 and 2023, the life satisfaction index in Greece records the 4th largest improvement among all countries in the sample.
SOURCE: ot.gr
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