UAE a “Gold Standard” Country for Citizen

• UAE Nationals Believe They Enjoy a Good Quality of Life
• Rating Surpasses European Levels

Citizens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) believe they enjoy a good quality of life with a rating that surpasses most of their European counterparts, according to Steve Hamilton-Clark, CEO of TNS MENA, the world’s largest custom market research organisation.[wpsr_retweet]

The firm recently conducted a nationwide survey (a repeat of a similar survey conducted in 2011) and found that citizens across the UAE expressed an even higher degree of happiness and satisfaction with their overall quality of life compared to 2011, with 97 per cent of respondents stating that they were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’, (an increase of 6 percentage points). “Such high levels of satisfaction can only happen in a country where the overall sentiment is that of optimism and positivity,” said Hamilton-Clark and concluded that the UAE’s strong economic fundamentals and continued stability coupled with government’s focus on citizen welfare and national development all helped improve the satisfaction ratings with quality of life to even higher levels.

Compared to a similar measure, the Standard Eurobarometer 80, Hamilton-Clark highlighted that Denmark and Sweden are also at the same level, with 97 per cent of citizens stating a high degree of overall satisfaction.

“The UAE satisfaction rating among nationals is on par with indices for Scandinavian countries, considered the ‘gold standard’ in such surveys,” Hamilton-Clark said, adding that “the UAE’s 97 per cent satisfaction rating far exceeds the All Europe Index at 72 per cent as well as those of other leading European nations such as Belgium at 93 per cent, United Kingdom at 90 per cent, and Germany at 89 per cent.”

The research findings are an extract from the UAE Opinion Survey conducted by TNS and comprised a representative sample of 5,000 Emirati citizens drawn from each of the seven emirates.

Hamilton-Clark said that it formed part of a UAE study undertaken between December 2013 and March 2014 and measures the general public perception of, and satisfaction with, overall quality of life experienced.