Between June and August 2005, in a survey conducted by GfK market research, Allianz AG asked 1000 people each in France, Germany, Italy and Spain to provide information about their life aims, their happiness and their financial planning.

Good qualifications are currently the most important life aim in both Germany and Italy. The French, on the other hand, want to have children (81 percent) and enjoy life now (80 percent). Third to fifth places on the life-aim scale in France are partners, healthier living and home ownership (74 percent each).

The number one life aim in Spain is healthier living (91 percent). This is followed, again, by good qualifications (88 percent) and home ownership (86 percent).

In Italy good qualifications and healthier living come first equal (88 percent), ahead of home ownership (87 percent).

For Germans good qualifications (88 percent) is followed by partners in second place (80 percent) and financial security in the future and in old age (78 percent).

Financial security is also one of the most important life aims for the French (73 percent, fourth place), the Spanish (78 percent, fifth place) and the Italians (86 percent, third place). In all four countries financial security takes a gloomy first place when it comes to the greatest discrepancy between the importance of a life aim and its achievement (see illustration). Consequently, says Michael Diekmann, CEO of Allianz AG, "Politicians, too, must act. They must continue to encourage people to take responsibility for setting up their own additional personal provision plans for the future, and give them the financial freedom to do this."

Spaniards are more content with their current life (56 percent) than Germans (52 percent), Italians (49 percent) or French people (42 percent). When asked about changes in their contentedness in the past five years, the Spanish reported the biggest leap forward (47 percent), in front of the Italians (44 percent). In Germany and France the changes for the better (32 percent each) are more or less balanced by the changes for the worse.

The main determinant of this contentedness is the degree to which personal life aims are achieved. Analysis of the replies revealed that on the one hand there are life aims the achievement of which is, if anything, regarded as a foregone conclusion. Achievement of these aims hardly increases one's happiness, but makes one dissatisfied if they are not achieved. Aims of this type are finding a partner and having children. The converse is true of the aims financial security, enjoyment of life and career development. If these are achieved, they increase contentedness.

A considerable strain on contentedness in all four countries was caused by the difference between the importance attached to financial security in the future and old age (between 86 and 73 percent) and the degree this aim is achieved (between 34 and 26 percent) – by far the biggest differential in the entire survey.

While long-term financial planning is important to all respondents (Germany 62 percent, Italians and Spaniards 54 percent each, French 49 percent), only 33 percent of Germans consider themselves adequately provided for longer life expectancy, while in Spain the figure is 26 percent, in Italy 20 percent and in France as low 17 percent.

The Germans have earned their slight lead in the financial-provision satisfaction stakes (35 percent against 34 percent in Spain, 23 percent in France and 16 percent in Italy) – as they are far more willing (63 percent) to hold back their consumer spending in favor of private provision than the French (36 percent), Italians (32 percent) and the Spanish (30 percent).


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