More than half of Romanians bemoan their lot in life, study shows

Less than half of Romanians, 47 percent are satisfied with their life at the moment, far below the European average of 78 percent, according to the survey Eurobarometer 72, which canvasses public opinion in the European Union. The figure is the same as it was in June last year. Romania has similarly low levels of contentment to other South-Eastern EU states, namely Bulgaria, with 38 percent, Hungary, some 42 percent, Greece, with 58 percent and Croatia, 63 percent.

Local women seem to have the worst of it. In Romania, 50 percent of men and 44 percent of women are happy with the life they lead while at European level there is a negligible difference between the genders, with 78 percent of men and 77 percent of women professing to be content.

There is also a significant generation gap across Europe. Young people are much more satisfied with their condition than elderly people both in Romania and the EU. Here, 53 percent of people under 40 enjoy their life compared to only 42 percent of those above 40. In the European Union, the difference is 81 percent to 76 percent.

Moreover, both in Romania and in the EU, better educated people declare themselves more satisfied with their lives. In Romania 57 percent of the people who continued their studies after the age of 20 say they are happy. By contrast, in the European Union, 86 percent of people who went on to higher education are satisfied with their lot.

Regarding expectations for the next year, 22 percent of Romanians think they will live better, 29 percent say they will live worse, 43 percent believe things will stay the same and 6 percent do not know. The level of pessimism in Romania is almost double than in the European Union, where it is15 percent. As for the cost of living in Romania, 88 percent of respondents believe the situation here is less favorable than in other EU countries. Moreover, 87 percent of Romanians believe the quality of life in their country is below the European average. The data for the survey was collected from the end of October 2009 until November 11, 2009 on a sample of 1,021 respondents.

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Otilia Haraga