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The first study was published by the weekly
newspaper Expresso in January and said that Albufeira was ranked second
in the country after Lisbon, in respect of the Indice Concelhio de
Qualidade de Vida (IQV), the Portuguese barometer to measure the
quality of life in a council area. The measure was created by the Economic and
Social Development Observatory from Beira Interior University in the
north of Portugal.
Albufeira’s ranking has now been backed by a new
study from Instituto de Tecnologia Comportamental (INTEC), a private
organisation that analyses behaviour in business and society. The INTEC
study, published by weekly newspaper Sol and presented on Monday by
Albufeira Câmara, showed that the council leads in areas such as
diversity, tolerance and security as well as tourism.
Other
factors taken into consideration concluded that Albufeira ranks in
second place in economy and employment, in third on the accessibility
and transportation, in fourth place in teaching and training criteria
and in fifth position where the environment is concerned.
The
culture on offer in Albufeira was also analysed by INTEC and the study
concluded that the council has one of the most prosperous and diverse
agendas in terms of programming and facilities.
Subjective
Despite
being subjective, the happiness of the people living and working in
Albufeira was also analysed by experts of INTEC and that resulted in
another second place, also after Lisbon.
The earlier study by
Beira Interior University included 20 councils identified across the
country as the ones showing better conditions for its residents. This
included seven councils in each of the Lisbon and Algarve areas. The
group of seven Algarve areas were Albufeira (2), Lagos (6), Lagoa (8),
Loulé (11), Portimão (12), Faro (14) and Vila Real de Santo António
(17).
The University’s study was based on 2004’s year book of
the Instituto Nacional de Estatísticas (INE), the national statistics
institute, and included factors such as quantitative criteria from
Gross Internal Product (GIP), consumption and the cultural offering of
the areas studied.
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