Almost half of Romanians satisfied with their lives, 30 percent less than European average, Eurobarometer poll shows

46 percent of Romanians are satisfied with their lives, while only 4 percent consider that the country’s economic situation is good. 14 percent of the surveyed Romanians expect the economy to recover in 2011, as shows a Eurobarometer survey published on Tuesday, quoted by news wire Mediafax. Unlike the case of their country, 41 percent of Romanian respondents think the European economic situation is good and 32 percent of them said the same thing about the world economic situation.

The poll shows that 46 percent of Romanians are satisfied with their lives, compared to 36 percent at the beginning of last year. About 54 percent of Romanians in urban areas and 39 percent of those living in rural areas said they are pleased with their lives.

In the European Union, 78 percent of respondents declared that they found their lives to be satisfying, 30 percent higher than the average registered in Romania. In Denmark the level hit 97 percent and 96 percent in Sweden and the Netherlands. A mere 38 percent of Bulgarians said they are satisfied with their lives.

According to the Eurobarometer, in the fall of 2010, 94 percent of Romanians considered the country’s economic situation was bad or very bad, compared to 90 percent at the beginning of last year. About 70 percent of EU citizens said their countries’ economic situation is bad.

What’s more, as the same source shows, half of Romanians see the rising prices and inflation as their main problems, while a third consider that the crisis’s impact on the labor market has not yet peaked, while 4 percent expect the job market to worsen in the next 12 months, says a Eurobarometer study.

The majority of Romanians (80 percent of them) think that the anti-crisis measures taken by the Government were ineffective. Moreover, as the survey shows, 63 percent of Romanians think the European Union was inefficient in fighting the crisis. Almost half of European citizens said the European Union’s anti-crisis measures were efficient. National governments should be the institutions most capable of taking viable measures against the economic crisis, al almost one third of Romanians said. The European Union ranks next with 27 percent and the G20 states with 12 percent.

The survey was developed on a sample of 1001 Romanians between November 11 and December 1, last year. The national Eurobarometer 74 report was presented Tuesday in a pres conference by its author, Horia Domnariu, research director with the Center for Market and Opinion Research (CSOP). The error margin is +/- 3 percent.