As if you weren’t jealous enough already of the lifestyle of those living across the ocean…The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that the French spend more time eating and sleeping than the citizens of any other developed nation. In fact, they snooze nine hours—about 30 minutes longer than we Americans—each night. And they spend twice as much time (two hours a day) as we do mange-ing.
The sweet life doesn’t stop there: Europeans average about six weeks of vacation per year, compared to two-weeks for Americans—that is, for the 77 percent of us lucky enough to get any. (The U.S. is the only country that does not mandate paid vacation leave. Even China requires a minimum of three weeks for everybody.) And when they are working, the average European clocks a 35-hour workweek, a full hour less per day than we. You might just want to mention that to your boss.
For all of our “industriousness,” the U.S. is now ranked 45th in longevity, and Americans are twice as likely as Europeans to suffer from anxiety and depression.