No Need for New Year's Resolutions

Those nice people in Eurobarometer have a habit of publishing fascinating studies and not telling anyone about it ... One that crept out before Christmas was on Health & Long-Term Care in the European Union (opens as a pdf), and provides some great insights into how Irish folk compare with the rest of Europe.

For example, we apparently are the most able-bodied people in the EU: with 85% of Irish people saying they have experienced no constraints on their activities due to their physical or mental condition (compared with just 76% in the EU27 as a whole). All this despite the fact that 30% of us smoke, 15% are overweight and 14% admit to drinking too much alcohol. Mind you, we have the second lowest reported level of workplace stress after the Italians (11% vs. 10%) - maybe that explains it?