Band 6+: The graph below shows the percentage of workers from five different European countries that were absent for a day or more due to illness from 1991 to 2001.

The line graph provides information about the rates of employees in five different countries located in Europe who were sick and unable to work for a day or more over a period between 1991 and 2001. The data is calibrated in percentages.

Overall, the highest rate of the employee absence belong to the Netherlands, while Germany had the lowest and steady tendency over the 10-year period. The UK followed a similar trend as Germany. Furthermore, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands had fluctuations over the given period of time.

On the one hand, workers in Sweeden and France followed opposite tendencies. Sweeden showed an upward trend from 3% to 4.5%, however, France experienced dramatic decrease from 5% to 3%. Moreover, the Netherlands recorded instability during 10 years by fluctuating from 5% to 4% in the first 5-year period and increased approximately 5.5% in the second half of the term.

On the other hand, the UK and Germany had a similar constant tendency, one of them was approximately 2.5% and the other was 1.5%, respectively.