British people have the worst quality of life in Europe, according to a report which highlights the long hours, bad weather, low life expectancy and high price of many consumer goods.

In a study of ten of the largest European countries, Britain comes last followed by Ireland, with France and Spain topping the table.

Though British households enjoy the highest income, at ￡35,730 a year, ￡10,325 higher than the European average, British families have to contend with a high cost of living, with fuel, food and alcohol all costing more than the European average.

With a litre of unleaded petrol at ￡1.08 a litre, the UK is the second most expensive country in Europe. However, diesel is more expensive in the UK than anywhere else in Europe – ￡1.13 a litre, which is 19p or 20 per cent above the European average of ￡0.94.

The report by price comparison website uSwitch analyses 10 European countries against 17 different benchmarks, from the price of gas, electricity, fuel, food and drink to the amount each country spends on education, health to working conditions and the weather.

The top three countries are France, Spain and Denmark, with Sweden, Ireland and Britain coming eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

The study comes less than a week after the United Nations moved Britain out of the top 20 list of most desirable countries to live in for the first time.

While France and Germany were initially hit hard by the global financial crisis, both have officially exited their recessions, while Britain has yet to confirm this has happened. Later this week, despite signs of recovery in the housing market and buoyant retail sales, there is expected to be grim economic news with unemployment predicted to have climbed to above 2.5 million for the first time since 1994.

(Agencies)