How's life in Spain?

Relative to other OECD countries, Spain’s average performance across the different well-being dimensions is mixed. Despite a comparatively low average household net adjusted disposable income in 2015, household net wealth was above the OECD average in 2011 (the latest available year). Spain has particular weaknesses in terms of jobs and earnings: for instance, both labour market insecurity and the long-term unemployment rate are among the highest in the OECD. However, work-life balance is an area of strength: only around 5% of employees regularly worked long hours, less than half of the OECD average, and the full-time employed report having among the highest levels of time off (i.e. time spent on leisure and personal care) in the OECD. Life expectancy at birth (83 years) is nearly 3 years above the OECD average, and social support is also relatively high. Conversely, only 58% of the adult working-age population have completed at least an upper secondary education, well below the OECD average of 75%, and adults’ skills are also below the average.

Change in Spain’s average well-being over the past 10 years
Dimension	Description	Change
Income and wealth	In 2015, household net adjusted disposable income was 6% lower than in 2005, one of the largest falls in the OECD over the decade. Household net wealth recorded a cumulative decrease of 3% between 2008 and 2011 (in real terms).	➘ ➘
Jobs and earnings	The employment rate fell over the past 10 years, with a moderate improvement in 2014. Despite dropping from 2009 to 2014, real earnings have improved overall in the last decade, and are now 7% higher than in 2005. Labour market insecurity peaked in 2012, and despite falling slightly since then, remains 3 times higher than in 2007. Long-term unemployment has risen since 2007, peaking in 2013 at 13%. By contrast, the incidence of job strain has fallen from 49% in 2005 to 41% in 2015.	➘ ➚ ➘ ➘ ➚
Housing conditions	Spending on housing costs (as a proportion of household disposable income) has risen from 18.2% in 2005 to 21.8% in 2015 – one of the largest increases in the OECD. On the other hand, the share of people living in dwellings without basic sanitary facilities has remained stably low since 2005-10.	➘ ↔
Work-life balance	The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week has fallen by 4 percentage points in the past decade, a steeper decline than the 0.9 point fall recorded for the OECD average.	➚
Health status	Despite a slight fall between 2014 and 2015, life expectancy has risen by nearly 3 years overall since 2005 – a larger improvement than the OECD average. The percentage of adults reporting to be in “good” or “very good” health has increased by 6 points since 2005, to a level just above the OECD average.	➚ ➚
Education and skills	The 10-year change in upper secondary educational attainment cannot be assessed, due to a recent break in the data. However, between 2014 and 2016, attainment rates in Spain increased by 1.7 percentage points.	➚
Social connections	The share of people having relatives or friends whom they can count on to help in case of need has been broadly unchanged since 2005-07, in contrast to the slight decline recorded for the OECD average.	↔
Civic engagement	In line with the OECD average trend, voter turnout has fallen in Spain over the past decade. In the 2016 general elections, the share of votes cast among the population registered to vote was 70%, 5 points lower than in 2008 and 3 points lower than in 2015, but 1 point higher than in 2011.	➘
Environmental quality	Satisfaction with local water quality has remained relatively stable since 2005-2007, and is slightly below the OECD average. Despite increasing slightly from 2010 to 2011, annual exposure to PM_2.5 air pollution has fallen by 9% overall since 2005.	↔ ➚
Personal security	The rate of deaths due to assault has gradually fallen over the last 10 years, while the share of people who report feeling safe when walking alone at night has improved from 65% to 83%.	➚ ➚
Subjective well-being	People’s life satisfaction has fallen gradually during the last 10 years, from an average of 7.1 to 6.4 (measured on a 0-10 scale). This decline is three times as large as the OECD average decline.	➘
Note : For each indicator in every dimension: ➚ refers to an improvement; ↔ indicates little or no change; and ➘ signals deterioration. This is based on a comparison of the starting year (2005 in most cases) and the latest available year (usually 2015 or 2016). The order of the arrows shown in column three corresponds to that of the indicators mentioned in column two.

Spain’s resources and risks for future well-being: Illustrative indicators