OECD Better Life Index Ranks Spain Among Best In The World for Work-Life Balance

OECD Better Life Index Ranks Spain Among Best In The World for Work-Life Balance

Its no surprise that Spain is one of the best

places in the world to live.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently published the results from their latest Better Life Index. The results show that Spain performed quite well on several indices. So moving to Spain could greatly improve your life.

Even though overall life satisfaction was down globally – a mood swing likely caused by the never-ending economic problems of the world – Spain performed quite well in several areas. These great results included topping the table on work-life balance, the sense of community, and health and safety. 

The Better Life Index ranks the 34 most stable and rich nations the world over and ranks them based a number of topics including: Income, Housing, Community, Jobs, Environment, Education, Civic Engagement, Life Satisfaction, Health, Safety, and Work-Life Balance.

While Spain didn’t perform too well on some indices, such as jobs and income, in general life Spain is better than the OECD average.

The index results make for an interesting read. In terms of income the average disposable income of a Spanish household was €16,962, which was just below the €17,111 OECD average. There is also quite a divide between the richest and poorest people in Spain; the top 20 of Spanish earners are six times richer than the bottom 20%.

Spain also ranked just below the OECD average in employment levels. The results show that 58% of the working-age people in Spain have a paid job. This is a little below the 66% average. The study also shows that the Spanish work less hours than average. Spaniards work for an average of 1,690 hours in a year which is slightly less than the 1,776 average. Spain also performed a little blow par in education. Only 53% of adults aged between 25 and 64 hold a degree in Spain, which is significantly lower than the 74% OECD average.

The Good News

The good news is that, even though it’s bad that Spain has low job prospects and earnings, along with less highly educated people, the OECD study showcased how strong Spanish lifestyle and culture is. Spain has one of the longest life expectancies in the world; the Spanish life expectancy is 82 years; higher than the 80 years OECD average.

Spain also did well in terms of community. Spaniards are generally gregarious and friendly. They also possess a strong sense of civic duty that led to Spain doing well in this area. 93% of Spanish people said that they had someone they could call on if they found themselves in need; higher than the OECD average of 90%.

Spain also topped the tables in terms of the work-life balance; scoring a 9.1 out of 10.

Spain performed above average overall when compared to other nations in the Better Life Index. The cultural strength of the country made up for the shortcomings that gotten worse since the economy went down. Even though Spain still has some economic problems it remains one of the safest country in the world. Spain has the eighth-lowest homicide rate, great gender equality levels, low cost of living and an overall widespread sense of personal security is felt by every Spaniard.

Study Shows Med Diet Better for The Heart Than Statins

Study Shows Med Diet Better for The Heart Than Statins

Spain is one of the healthiest places in the world to live

with 320 days of sunshine and its wonderful

Mediterranean diet, which helps you live longer 

It’s been shown by a new study that people who eat the Mediterranean diet are able to protect their heart better than people taking certain blood pressure correction and heart-protection medications.

The Mediterranean diet is the kind of diet that you find in countries like Spain, Italy and Greece. This Med diet involves plenty of olive oil, fresh fruit and v
eg, and fish. Don’t worry though; you don’t need to eat this diet in a bodega to get the benefits!

While there might be some health benefits to this socially inclusive way of eating the study from the IRCCS Nuromed Institute in Italy was focused entirely on the foods involved. This study showed that when heart patients were fed this Med diet their chances of dying an early death was slashed by a massive 37%, just over twice the 16% cut that heart medicine provides.

The researchers say that they can’t directly compare the figures and added many heart patients should combine the effects of both the Mediterranean diet and heart pills to get the best protection.

Even so the results were bound to draw attention in the medical world. The research would appear to back up several other studies and all of the anecdotal evidence that shows the health benefits of eating the traditional Mediterranean diet.

When people eat plenty of olive oil, fruits, vegetables and fish they ingest less fat and more beneficial nutrients. This nutritional balance has been shown to protect against diabetes, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer because of the anti-inflammatory effects of these foods and the nutrients they contain.

The study was headed by Professor Giovanni de Gaetano who went on to say that the Mediterranean diet was more effective than medication. Professor Gaetano also suggested that the government should begin subsidising fruits and vegetables and even make some fruit and vegetables freely available at doctor’s surgeries.

There are seven million adults dealing with heart disease in the UK alone.

Professor de Gaetano said that the study showed people eating a Mediterranean diet showed 37% less chance of dying from any cause compared to people who were eating poor diets. He added that the Mediterranean diet is accepted as being one of the healthiest diets there is. There have been several other studies into the Mediterranean diet that have shown how effective it is at reducing the chances of developing chronic issues and dying from any cause. Most of this research was focused on the general population though. These were people who were already healthy. De Gaetano wanted to look into the effects on people who already suffered from cardiovascular disease and if it would still be the best option for them.

The research would show that the diet is just as effective, if not more so, for people who need to control these conditions. Combining the Mediterranean diet with statin could provide the ultimate two-pronged attack to control these conditions without the negative side effects of medication such as muscle pain.

The study was done on 1,200 Italians who were followed for seven years. These participants all had heart disease and were instructed to record the foods they ate during this seven year period. How well they adhered to the Mediterranean diet was scored using a nine-point scoring system and, after other factors were considered (smoking, weight, gender, and exercise levels), the study showed that there was an average 21% reduced chance of death from heart disease with people following the Med diet. This went up to 37% for the people who strictly followed the diet.

Spain offers many chances for people to follow the Mediterranean diet as the cost of living in Spain is low and most restaurants and supermarkets make all the ingredients available at affordable prices. When you combine this diet with the outdoors lifestyle and a healthy climate it’s not hard to understand why the Spanish life expectancy is higher than most of Europe.

Why the Spanish Diet is Better Than Any Fad Diet

Why the Spanish Diet is Better Than Any Fad Diet

The Mediterranean diet is considered very healthy

It’s been discovered that a Mediterranean diet with plenty of healthy fats is a great tool to lose weight. At least according to one study. It seems obvious that removing fat is how you lose weight. A recent study from the University of Barcelona disputes the idea. In fact they believe that some fats (interestingly found in the Mediterranean diet) can help people lose weight.

The university conducted a trial in which they took 7,500 obese people and put them on a diet of healthy fats. This diet included plenty of olive oil, nuts, oily fish, and some red meats.

The results of the study showed that the people on this “fatty” diet didn’t gain more weight than the control group of people who cut out fat from their diet altogether. This study backs up claims from other studies that the Spanish Mediterranean diet, filled with fruit, vegetables, olives and fish, is great for health.

A member of the university said that the trial shows that eating a high-fat, high vegetable diet like the Mediterranean diet doesn’t cause someone to gain weight. Some people are criticising the narrow band of people in the trial. All 7,500 people were overweight, Caucasian, and aged between 55 – 80. It’s been suggested that the results, and any health advice gleaned from them, may not apply to different age groups and races.

It has been proven at least that the Mediterranean diet is lower in cholesterol in other diets and can increase your life expectancy, but it has also been suggested that some parts of the diet, particularly the fats found in Jamón Ibérico, can make certain health conditions worse. Critics have also pointed out that the lack of weight gain in the already obese patients could be due to a number of factors and may have nothing to do with the diet itself.

There is still consensus on some parts of the trial though. Even critics to the trial agree that eating too many carbohydrates can cause one to gain weight, and that the nutrition community derides fats and sugars present in processed meats, desserts, fast food and sweet drinks.
Its was also found and important form an early age that children should start with a healthy diet and carry this on throughout their lifespan to live longer than a child that eats unhealthy.

Spain is considered one of the healthiest places to live on the planet, this is due the healthily Mediterranean diet.

Spanish Hotels Enjoy a Great April With Signs Suggesting It Can Only Get Better

Spanish Hotels Enjoy a Great April With Signs Suggesting It Can Only Get Better

Hotels in Spain saw a bumper number of guests in April when compared to last year and it’s only going to improve.

Hotels in Costa del Sol are all full which is a

positive sign moving forward

Even though Easter was in March this year Spanish hotels received quite the windfall from plenty of tourism during April. Occupancy rate records were actually broken thanks to the influx of British holidaymakers.

Data has been released by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) that shows the number of people staying in the country overnight in April increased by 1.3% over last year to 23.4 million.

Given how it is usually Easter that sees this bump in tourism these figures came as a real swerve. This rise in tourism would seem to confirm what people have been saying for a while now; 2016 will be a record breaking year for the Spanish tourism industry.

When you only take the data for foreign tourists then there is actually an 11.5% rise in tourists from outside the country compared to April of last year as just under four million people stayed overnight in Spain.

Holidaymakers are also staying in Spain for longer in general. The data showed that the average stay increased 1.2% to 3.1 nights per person. This is in spite of the average cost per night rising 3.3% to €73.50.

The UK remained the biggest source of foreign tourists as roughly 692,000 Brits visited for 3.6 million overnight stays. Next were the 595,000 Germans with their 3.26 million overnight stays, the 570,000 French with 1.85 million overnight stays, and 225,000 Italians for 623,000 overnight stays.

This number of German visitors was up 4.8% compared to last year but the British remained the dominant source with an 18.1% rise in British tourists over the year.

As April can stay a little chilly in some areas of Spain it’s not surprising at all to hear that the Canary Islands, which are warm all year round, where the top destination and accounted for just over 31% of the overnight stays. Andalucía and Catalonia competed to be second place with 18% of the visitors, a percentage that will surely rise as the temperature does.

Expats have better levels of happiness and health living is southern Spain

As per survey, expats have better levels of happiness and health

Usually, expats and northern Europeans who buy property in Costa del Sol and move to different countries like southern Spain have an overall better life, when health, happiness and richness is considered.

Costa del Sol brings Expats happiness and health

As per a new survey by MoveHub, an international relocation firm, expats who move to other countries enjoy several benefits, such as increased wealth, health and overall happiness.

In the survey, a total of 1,000 people from UK and Ireland took part, 50% of whom were staying abroad previously or are current expats from some other country, while the rest 50% belonged to the same country. Among the expats, 69% of the people said that they have good to very good health and happiness. However, only 58% of the people who were of the same country said that they were happy.

Expats who participated in the survey were of the opinion that they made or are making good money overseas. While 40% of the expats opined so, only 28% of the local populace was of the same opinion.

Even in terms of happiness, only 53% of the non-expat community said that they were happy, while a whopping 63% of the expat population said that they were happy.

This survey by MoveHub is one of the hundreds of surveys that indicate that the experience of life in a different country is beneficial in several aspects, which include open-mindedness, cross cultural cooperation and a wide social circle. Also, the disadvantages of living the expat life are fairly low and the pros outweigh the cons in all aspects.

By relocating and even starting up a business to Spain, you will be welcomed by a wonderful climate in Spain and warm people. There are several benefits of shifting to Spain, making it one of the favorite choices among Brits and people from Ireland.

The economy of Iran is also emerging to be strong gradually, which ensures good wealth and happy life to expats who are planning to move in to Spain.