Generally in the more left-leaning European countries, there is a greater emphasis put on personal health, dress, and presentation. You can see it just walking down main city streets, while ever city has more and less fashionable areas, the average for self-manicurement seems to be higher in urban left/western Europe than in corresponding US cities.

Additionally, the more left-aligned European states also have a few other factors going for them. With stronger welfare states comes less homeless, and obviously impoverished people (on average) that you will see in public than say, on the streets of New York City. On the opposite side of the spectrum, people on average, simply appear to be healthier in such cities than one finds in the USA, and this is reflected in statistics like average national height.

Going further, most European cities (not all) tend to take some form of civic pride in the design and caretaking of their cities, while equivalent US cities stress some form of architectural individualism, which has its advantages, but means you are more likely to see random pieces of squalor or ugliness even in nice areas.

You put all of these things together, and one of the things people visiting Europe from the US find, is a feeling that wow: "These people are dressed more nicely than I'm used to, look healthier/taller than I'm used to, are living in nicer settings than I'm used to."

You hear it more about Sweeden (which I cannot attest to, having never been), but yeah, it lines up with the above.

This isn't to say there aren't advantages to the US system, but that's a different topic : )