People say they are happier in the last 18 months

Irish people have become happier in the last eighteen months according to a new survey released at the St Patrick's Festival symposium in Dublin.

The second Quality of Life in Ireland study, commissioned by Diageo, shows that Irish people are 3 per cent more content with their emotional, physical and financial well-being than they were when the last survey was completed in January 2001.

Mr Gerard O'Neill, social researcher with Amarach Consulting, said the higher result on the survey's "goodness index" (75.2 per cent in 2003 compared with 72.3 per cent in 2001) can be explained by a strong increase in the amount of people who say overall they are personally "very happy".

"Despite economic uncertainty people have become more content which shows there is only a limited link between trends in economic circumstances and personal circumstances," he said.

Matters of faith and religion were also studied in the survey. The results showed 87 per cent of Irish people believe in God compared to 95 per cent in 2001. Only 66 per cent believe in sin compared with 85 per cent when the last survey was conducted.

The numbers who believe in life after death (56 per cent), the devil (39 per cent) and hell (37 per cent) are down significantly.

A chart contrasting GDP per capita in 2002 with the proportion of people in each country for whom religion is "very important" showed that Irish people are now less religious than their British counterparts.

Confidence in all institutions has fallen since the last survey was undertaken. Only 2 per cent of those surveyed said they had "a great deal of confidence" in the Government compared to 9 per cent in 2001.

Confidence in the media fell from 9 per cent to 6 per cent, in the health service from 10 per cent to 5 per cent and in the legal system from 13 per cent to 7 per cent. Confidence in the church fell from 17 per cent to 9 per cent in the same period.

Those interested can measure their own quality of life by completing a special survey on the Internet at www.amarach.com.