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 illustrates the proportion of employees with illness-related absences in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany between 1991 and 2001.

Overall

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, the percentage of illness absence in the Netherlands and Sweden increased,

while

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the figure for France declined. Both the UK and Germany remained relatively stable over the period. In 1991, Dutch workers' absence rate was just under 5% and rose slightly to around 5.5% in 1992. It

then

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declined steadily to about 4% by 1996, before gradually rising again, reaching approximately 5.3% by 2001.

Similarly

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, the percentage for Sweden increased throughout the period, climbing from around 3% in 1991 to over 4.5% in 2001.

In contrast

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, illness-related absences in France fell from over 5% in 1991 to around 3% by 1996, after which the figure remained stable. The UK and Germany both fluctuated slightly around 2% across the entire period, with no major

overall

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change.