Survey finds citizens think life is good in UAE

Citizens in the UAE expressed a high degree of satisfaction with their overall quality of life, with 97 per cent of respondents stating that they were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with their lives.

The National staff

ABU DHABI // Citizens in the UAE believe they enjoy a good quality of life with a rating that surpasses most of their European counterparts, according to Steve Hamilton-Clark, Chief Executive of TNS MENA, the world’s largest custom market research organisation.

The firm recently conducted a nationwide survey, similar to the one conducted in 2011, and found that citizens across the UAE expressed an even higher degree of 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 six per cent. A sample of 5,000 Emiratis from each of the seven emirates were surveyed between December and March.

“Such high levels of satisfaction can only happen in a country where the overall sentiment is that of optimism and positivity,” said Hamilton-Clark, concluding 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.

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.”