Official statistics from countries around the European Union suggest that Britain has the second-highest living standard within the EU. Research suggests that a major reason for this is the service provided by the NHS. The European research body, ‘Eurostat’, compared the figures for Britain both with the services supplied by the NHS and without such services. It found that without the aid of the NHS, Britain moved down to 10th in the scale for its standard of living. In the recent report Bulgaria was found to be the worst-off country in the EU, with Norway and Sweden as the richest. Denmark was found to be the most expensive to live in within the EU. These figures represent a dramatic change since the last survey carried out in 2007. At the time of the 2007 survey, Ireland was found to be one of the richest countries with its standard of living 48% above the average, beating even Sweden. However, this is no longer the case.