Economic and personal security as part of quality of life of EU member states

Abstract

The article focuses on one of the important components of quality of life, namely security, more specifically economic and personal safety. The aim of the article is to compare the status of the relevant selected indicators in the EU Member States, their variability and the changes that took place between 2010 and 2015. In order to compare the overall situation, one composite indicator is constructed consisting of two subsets of basic indicators from the field of economic and personal security. Indicator values are standardized, variability is measured by the coefficient of variation. Research did not confirm the hypothesis to improve the value of the composite economic and personal safety indicator in 2015 against 2010; in four Member States, the situation (albeit slightly) worsened. Neither the assumption of a reduction in the variability of the individual indicators has been confirmed; apart from the material deprivation indicator, the variation coefficient has increased in all cases. It has also been demonstrated that the variability of personal safety indicators significantly outstrips the variability of the economic security indicators of EU Member States.