For the second consecutive year, the stress levels endured by business owners in Taiwan were the highest last year among business owners worldwide, according to the results of a survey released by London-based Grant Thornton International, a leading financial and business adviser to mid-corporate businesses.
The 2006 International Business Owners Survey polled more than 7,000 owners of medium-sized businesses from 30 countries in the fall of last year.
The survey shows that 57 percent of business owners around the world said they were more stressed than a year ago, compared with just 39 percent who said the same in a similar survey conducted the previous year.
In Taiwan, 90 percent of the respondents said their stress had increased over the past year, up from the 69 percent registered in the previous survey.
Others at the top of the stress list include China, the Philippines, Botswana, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa, in that order. Of all the business owners surveyed worldwide, only 6 percent said their stress had decreased over the past year.
Stress levels were lowest among business owners in Sweden, followed by Italy, Spain and France.
The report says that the stress levels of business owners are related to the number of holidays that they enjoy, noting that most business owners in Asia saw their stress levels increase last year mainly because they seldom took any days off or went on vacation.
For example, business owners in Taiwan only took eight days off on average last year, while those in Thailand took four days and those in Malaysia had 10 days, the survey said. Owners in European countries had an average of 22 days off.
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