With a rating of 77.13 points, Portugal is the third most stressed country in Europe, only coming behind Serbia and Latvia. In addition to the second highest divorce rate in Europe, with 58.7 divorces per 100 marriages, Portugal has one of the lowest employment rates on the continent, with only 56.1 percent of the population employed.

The study, carried out by sleep experts from the British organisation www.eachnight.com, evaluated European countries according to three categories, namely financial, work and personal stress, in order to discover the most and least stressed countries in Europe.

Financial stress measures factors such as the poverty rate, the average price of a T1 apartment and the cost of transport, while work stress is based on the employment rate, average salary, annual vacation and average travel time to work. Personal stress was calculated using divorce rate, Covid-19 cases, depression cases, child care costs and crime levels.

Serbia had the highest score (77.83 points), thus being the most stressed country on the continent. Serbia's ranking is due to its monthly salary of €534.13 – the third lowest in Europe – and, at the same time, its poverty rate of 23%, the fourth highest on the continent.

With a stress level of 77.58 points, the second most stressed country in Europe to live in is Latvia, due to a divorce rate that is above the European average (45.7 divorces per 100 marriages) and a employment rate of 61.6%, the sixth lowest on the continent.

After Portugal, Greece and Spain follow (both with 74 points), Italy (73.35 points), Lithuania (71.11 points), Bulgaria (71.09 points) and Albania (70 .88 points) in the ranking of the most stressed countries in Europe.

The United Kingdom ranked 10th in the list of most stressed European countries. Factors such as the highest average income in Europe (2,018 euros) and the highest average monthly cost of transport (188 euros) determined a total score of 70.64 points for the United Kingdom, which has the third highest level of financial stress.

Least stressed

The ranking of the least stressed countries in Europe is led by Iceland, which obtained a total score of 47.41. The Nordic island is the least stressed country in terms of work factors, as it has the shortest average travel time in Europe – just 15 minutes – along with the lowest poverty rate (9%).

Germany (49.54 points) is the second European country with the lowest levels of stress, which is particularly due to a good performance in terms of work stress factors. German citizens have one of the highest monthly salaries in Europe, an average of 3,031 euros, on par with the fourth highest employment rate on the continent, with 75.6% of the population employed.

The third least stressed country on the European continent is Norway, which had a total score of 50.69. The ranking of this Scandinavian country is also due to low levels of work stress, with an average of 38 hours of work per week - the third lowest average in Europe - and the fifth highest average monthly salary in Europe, of 3,305.91 euros.