Filenews 19 October 2024
Most citizens in the European Union seem quite happy with their lives. However, Life Satisfaction Index is declining in some of the countries with the highest scores such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
EU citizens are generally satisfied with their lives, with the satisfaction level of people aged 16 and over being 7.3 out of 10 on average, according to Eurostat data.
European Union: Which countries are the happiest?
Finland ranks first with 7.8, followed by Belgium, Austria, Romania and Slovenia all at 7.7.
Bulgarians seem to be the unhappiest citizens. With a score of 5.9, they are at the lower end of the life satisfaction spectrum.
Denmark (from 8.0 to 7.5) and Sweden (from 7.9 to 7.5) had the highest decreases in satisfaction levels over the past decade.
In contrast, the countries that recorded the most significant increases in life satisfaction are Cyprus (from 6.2 to 7.5), Bulgaria (from 4.8 to 5.9), Estonia (from 6.5 to 7.2), Slovenia (from 7.0 to 7.7) and Greece (from 6.2 to 6.9).
In this poll, people were asked to simply rate their life satisfaction from 0 to 10.
The EU is working on a more complex definition of happiness, which extends beyond the usual GDP scores.
More recently, the Commission has identified '8+1' criteria to define quality of life: material living conditions, quantity and quality of employment, health, education, leisure and social interactions, economic and physical security, governance and basic rights, living environment and, finally, the overall life experience.
