Social Monitor: Romanians among Europeans most dissatisfied with their lives

The Romanian citizens are among the Europeans most dissatisfied with their lives, even in comparison with East Europeans, according todata of 101 Eurobarometer of 2024, included in a Social Monitor infograph, a project of Friedrich Ebert Romania Foundation.   “Only 62% if Romanians declared fully satisfied with their lives in 2024, while 38% were fully dissatisfied, the highest rate in EU. In comparison, 90% or more citizens in states such as Germany, Spain, or Sweden say they are fully satisfied with their lives, while in Bulgaria, 66% of people are satisfied”, say the authors of the barometer.   The dissatisfaction of Romanian citizens with their lives shows in the distrust that their lives could improve in the future when about a third (31%) of Romanians expect their lives to get worse in 2025, significantly more than in any other EU state included in 101 Barometer. In comparison, less than 20% of citizens of Bulgaria, Spain or Slovenia expect their lives to get worse in 2025, while only 5% of Swedish citizens have the same expectation.   Moreover, although Germany has known several periods of economic downfall in 2023 and 2024, the pessimism rate about their lives in 2025 is 23% among citizens, much less than in Romania. This evolution of the Romanians' distrust in their own futues is worrying, growing by 31% in 2024, from 24% in 2023.   The most important problems reported by Romanian citizens concern price rises and the economic situation of the country. 43% of Romanians consider that the dynamics of prices is the biggest problem, while 27% consider that the economic situation is an important problem of the country. The matter of price rises is considered important by most European citizens, with high rates recorded in Croatia (59%), Malta (58%), Bulgaria (48%), Estonia (47%), and lower rates in Scandinavian countries.   “Data collected by the European Commission in Eurobarometer 101 allow us to identify additional data about the most dissatisfied Romanians. The dissatisfaction rate grows with age.   While only 26% of Romanians aged between 18 and 44 years declare dissatisfied, the rate grows significantly with older categories, 35% dissatisfied people between 45-54 years of age, 44% dissatisfied bwteen 55-65 years and 55% for over 65 year-olds. In the same way, people with primary education tend to be most dissatisfied with their lives , with 57% peple dissatified among Romanians with less than 8 years of education, while the dissatisfaction rate among Romanians with higher education is only 22%. About 50% of Romanians in the rural area are not satisfied with their lives, compared to 30% among Romanians from large cities,” the press release shows.   Eurobarometer data confirm the fact that citizen dissatisfaction is correlated with critical opinions versus EU. About two thirds of Romanians who have a bad opinion about EU declare very dissatified of their lives. Moreover, dissatisfactions towards EU actions about Ukraine seem to be connected, most of people not satisfied with the intervention being dissasfied of their own lives in Romania.   In conditions of reorganizing presidential elections in 2025, these dissatisfactions should get answers from authorities. Otherwise, these dissatisfactions risk to determine of general rejection of the political status quo, even without the citizens realizing the alternatives.   The date presented come form Eurobarometer 101/2024 and Eurobarometer 100/2023, made upon initiatives of the European Commission. Source: https://romania.fes.de/ro/e/romanii-sunt-printre-europenii-cei-mai-nemultumiti-de-vietile-lor.html)