Many of us often feel like we never get any free time in the working day, and little chance to relax with family and friends – but that can’t be said for the whole of Europe because Denmark has just been named the country with the best work-life balance.
This is according to research from TotallyMoney, which looked at what countries in Europe offer maximum leisure time to keep their citizens happy, and minimum working hours (provided they’re productive).
Denmark fares exceedingly well on an average salary against cost of living, time devoted to leisure (a total of 15.9 hours), and hours worked (32.9 hours).
While Denmark tops the list, Sweden follows closely behind in second place. Sweden scores similarly to Denmark, but has a higher amount of average time worked in a week – by 3.5 hours. They also have three more bank holidays a year.
And it’s clearly a system that works well in these Scandinavian countries, as they are both at the top end of the scale for happiness, too.
The top 10 countries are:
Denmark
Sweden
Netherlands
Finland
France
Spain
Luxembourg
Germany
Austria
Belgium
But, while Denmark and Sweden top the list, the UK comes in at an unlucky 13th position. Funnily enough, the UK offers the lowest number of bank holidays but boasts the second highest holiday allowance, just falling behind Spain.
Meanwhile, Turkey scores the lowest in the research, coming bottom in 24th place.
Take a look at the full results in the infographic below:
