Ireland has been ranked among Europe’s “most stressful” countries, according to new research.
The study, carried out by CBD company CBDolie, examined European countries on the categories of depression prevalence, anxiety prevalence, stress, sadness, enjoyment and average weekly hours worked.
Each factor was then included in an index to create an overall stress score out of 100.
Ireland ranked sixth in the study with a total stress score of 49.2 out of 100.
Greece ranked as the most stressful country in Europe with a stress score of 71.8 out of 100.
The country scored high for both reports of stress and depression prevalence.
Greece has a depression prevalence of 6.52pc, the highest rate in Europe as well as 57pc of respondents reporting frequent stress, the second highest rate of all European countries.
Turkey ranked as the second most-stressed country in Europe.
The country was listed highest in Europe for reports of high stress levels, with 64pc of residents citing feeling stressed frequently.
Turkey also ranked highest in Europe for frequent feelings of sadness with 49pc of respondents reporting feeling this way often.
It also has the joint highest number of weekly hours worked at 42.8, tied with Montenegro.
Overall, these factors contributed to Turkey’s status as the second most stressed country in Europe with a total Stress Score of 71.2 out of 100, just slightly lower than Greece.
Portugal has the third highest rate of depression in Europe with 5.88pc of respondents reporting frequent feelings of depression.
In addition, the country has the highest rates of anxiety with 9.08pc of residents reporting frequent feelings of anxiety, making Portugal the third most stressed European country with a Stress Score of 68.4 out of 100.
Malta and Cyprus rank fourth and fifth respectively. Malta ranked highly due to high levels of weekly working hours at 37.9 and prominent levels of frequent feelings of anxiety with 6.97pc of respondents reporting as such.
Overall, Malta receives a Stress Score of 51.4 out of 100.
Cyprus has slightly higher levels of frequent anxiety at 7.22pc, however, it ranked lower than Malta for frequent feelings of sadness at 22pc compared to Malta’s 25pc, and on average works 0.2 less hours than Malta at 37.7, giving Cyprus a stress score of 50.4 out of 100.
In contrast, Denmark ranked as the least stressed country in Europe with a stress score of 21.7 out of 100.
When broken down, only 12pc of respondents claimed to often feel little enjoyment and pleasure, the second lowest behind Iceland, low feelings of frequent stress at just 21pc of respondents citing this and only 5.43pc of respondents feeling anxious frequently.
Source : independent.ie
