Life satisfaction in the European Union has seen a general growth trend between 2022 and 2023, with the score recorded for the EU as a whole increasing from 7.1 out of 10 to 7.3 out of 10 in 2023. At the same time, the decline between 2018 and 2022 could be explined by the The COVID-19 pandemic and related public health restrictions as life satisfaction tended to decrease due to the isolating effects of lockdowns, while the economic conditions such as historically high inflation have also led to dissatisfaction in the years since the beginning of the pandemic. Germany, in particular, has seen a dramatic decline in its citizens' evaluations of their own life satisfaction, as Germans' life satisfaction score declined from 7.4 in 2018, the highest of all the included countries in that year, to 7.0 in 2023. The country's economy has struggled with stagflation in the aftermath of the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while political and social polarization has also been a growing problem in Germany during the early 2020s.

In 2023, the most life-satisfied CEE countries were Romania, Slovenia, and Poland, respectively, whose life satisfaction index was higher than the average index for all EU member states. Bulgaria, however, recorded the lowest life satisfaction among all countries from the European Union.

Dataset combining EU Social Justice Index data with data on Life Satisfaction, Gross Domestic Product, Generosity, Social Support, Positive Affect and Negative affect, collected from the World Happiness Report. All the data were collected over 5 points in time: 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

In 2018, 15 year olds in Romania scored the highest mean satisfaction levels in Europe. According to the survey carried out across Europe, boys in Romania scored an average of 8 on the satisfaction score, while for girls the average score was 7.8. In general it can be observed that boys reported to have a higher life satisfaction level compared to girls across all European countries.

Background: A high level of well-being is associated with personal, community and national income, as well as personal, social and political trust. How these measures relate to each other within and between countries and within and across structural levels of society is largely unknown. To study this, we propose a three-layer nested socio-structural model. Each layer (individual, community, country) contains a measure of income, trust and satisfaction.Method: With this model, we analyzed data from two waves of the European Social Survey (ESS, 2006, 2012) in 19 countries (N = 72,461; weighted N = 73,307) with multilevel techniques. Indicators were personal, community, and national income; personal, social and political trust; and personal life satisfaction, social and political satisfaction.Results: Personal life satisfaction was associated with all income and trust variables. Greatest effect on personal life satisfaction, came from the national level, including political trust and income. However, 2/3 of the variance in personal life satisfaction came from income, that is personal, community and national. Within each socio-structural level, satisfaction was associated with income, but significantly modified by trust. When income and trust at all three levels were included, there was a significant association of the national layer on the social layer, and of the social layer on the individual layer as to the income–personal life satisfaction relationship. Consistent with the “the buffer hypothesis,” all three forms of trust acted as a buffer against the effect of personal income on life satisfaction. Low-trust countries had strong income–personal life satisfaction associations and the moderating role of trust was also stronger. High- and medium-trust countries had no such associations. Likewise, direct associations between political and personal trust were much stronger in the low-trust countries.Conclusion: The model presented in this study provides authorities with a framework for policies that will improve the general well-being of their population. Trust and income strongly influence personal life satisfaction. Money is the most important. However, trust forcefully dampens the effect of income. Politicians who want to enhance their population's personal life satisfaction, should raise the levels of trust in their electorate.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Carried out every four years, the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It collects data on a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and perceived quality of society. By running the survey regularly, it has also become possible to track key trends in the quality of people's lives over time. Previous surveys have shown, for instance, that people are having greater difficulty making ends meet since the economic crisis began. In many countries, they also feel that there is now more tension between people from different ethnic groups. And across Europe, people now trust their governments less than they did before. However, people still continue to get the greatest satisfaction from their family life and personal relationships.

Over the years, the EQLS has developed into a valuable set of indicators which complements traditional indicators of economic growth and living standard such as GDP or income. The EQLS indicators are more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress and therefore are easily integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate at EU and national levels in the European Union.

In each wave a sample of adult population has been selected randomly for a face to face interview. In view of the prospective European enlargements the geographical coverage of the survey has expanded over time from 28 countries in 2003 to 34 countries in 2011-12.

Further information about the survey can be found on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) EQLS web pages.

For the second edition (January 2014) the data file has been updated with a new total weighting variable. See documentation for further details and see also the updated version of the EQLS integrated file, held under SN 7348).


Main Topics:

The survey covers multiple dimensions of quality of life: employment and work-life balance, income and deprivation, housing and local environment, family and social contacts, health and mental wellbeing, subjective wellbeing (e.g. happiness, life satisfaction), social exclusion, perceived quality of society (e.g. tensions, trust in institutions) as well as access to and perceived quality of public services.

The Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (CCEB) series, first conducted in 2001, gathers information from the countries applying to become members of the European Union (EU) in a way that allows direct comparison with the standard Eurobarometer series carried out in the existing EU countries. The CCEB provides decision-makers and the European public with opinion data on the similarities and differences between the EU and the candidate countries. The CCEB continuously tracks support for EU membership in each country and records changes in attitudes related to European issues in the candidate countries. This round of the CCEB surveys was conducted between September 2 and October 15, 2002, in the 13 candidate countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey. Respondents were queried on such topics as life satisfaction and expectations, their native language, European countries visited and worked in, attitudes towards foreigners, trust in institutions, national and European identity, European currency, European elections, political participation, democracy satisfaction, and information media access. Respondents also answered questions focusing on their knowledge of the EU, as well as their opinion on its importance and meaning, national decision-making policies, policy priorities, image, membership, enlargement, unification, and constitution. Respondents were also asked questions about their awareness and familiarity with organizations like the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights. Background variables include nationality, age, gender, income, current occupation, whether the respondent was paid directly or indirectly by the state, local government, or other public administration, marital status, level of education, number of people living in household, whether anyone in the household owned a color television set, video recorder, video camera, automatic washing machine, dishwasher, home computer, microwave oven, mobile phone, or two or more cars, religious affiliation, how often religious services were attended, and voting intent.

Replication Data for: Tolerance, social capital, and life satisfaction: a multilevel model from transition countries in the European Union by Frank Crowley and Edel Walsh

Carried out every four years, the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. It collects data on a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective topics, such as people's levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and perceived quality of society. By running the survey regularly, it has also become possible to track key trends in the quality of people's lives over time. Previous surveys have shown, for instance, that people are having greater difficulty making ends meet since the economic crisis began. In many countries, they also feel that there is now more tension between people from different ethnic groups. And across Europe, people now trust their governments less than they did before. However, people still continue to get the greatest satisfaction from their family life and personal relationships.

Over the years, the EQLS has developed into a valuable set of indicators which complements traditional indicators of economic growth and living standard such as GDP or income. The EQLS indicators are more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress and therefore are easily integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate at EU and national levels in the European Union.

In each wave a sample of adult population has been selected randomly for a face to face interview. In view of the prospective European enlargements the geographical coverage of the survey has expanded over time from 28 countries in 2003 to 34 countries in 2011-12.

Further information about the survey can be found on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) EQLS web pages.

For the second edition (January 2014) the data file has been updated with a new total weighting variable. See documentation for further details and see also the updated version of the EQLS integrated file, held under SN 7348).

The Foundation continues its initiative to monitor and report on living conditions and quality of life in Europe.

28-country 'Quality of life in Europe' survey

The European quality of life survey (EQLS) that was carried out in 2003 covered 28 countries and involved interviewing 26,000 people. The survey examined a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health, work-life balance, life satisfaction and perceived quality of society.

Survey results

The main findings have been published in a series of analytical reports, providing a unique insight into the quality of life in 28 European countries.

Background: In light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its large economic consequences, we used a three-layer nested structural model (individual, community, and country), each with a corresponding measure of income, trust, and satisfaction, to assess change in their interrelationships following a global crisis; which, in this study, is the 2008/2009 financial crisis.Methods: With multilevel techniques, we analyzed data from two waves (2006 and 2012) of the European Social Survey (ESS) in 19 countries (weighted N = 73,636) grouped according to their levels of trust.Results: In high trust countries, personal life satisfaction (LS) was not related to personal, community, or national income before or after the crisis. In contrast, in low trust countries, LS was strongly related to all three forms of income, especially after the crisis. In all country groups, personal, social, and political trust moderated their respective effects of income on LS (“the buffer hypothesis”). Political trust moderated the effects of income more strongly in low trust countries. The moderating effect of political trust increased sharply after the crisis. After the crisis, national-level factors (e.g., political trust, national income) increased their importance for LS more than the factors at the local and individual levels. However, the relative importance of all the three forms of income to LS increased after the crisis, to the detriment of trust.Conclusion: Economic crises seem to influence personal LS less in high trust countries compared with low trust countries. Hence, high trust at a national level appears to buffer the negative impact of a financial crisis on personal satisfaction. Overall, the factors at the national level increased their impact during the financial crisis. When facing a global crisis, the actions taken by institutions at the country level may, thus, become even more important than those taken before the crisis.

Attitude towards the EU and EU enlargement.

Topics: life satisfaction; subjective rating of the development of the general life situation, the economic situation, the financial situation of the household, personal job situation, national labor market situation and the personal professional outlook in the coming year; native language; knowledge of foreign languages; frequency of political discussions with friends; self-rated opinion leadership; frequency of news consumption (television, newspaper and radio); interest in following news topics: local and national politics, social issues, EU, economics, sports, the environment, foreign politics, culture; spontaneous associations with the EU; general attitude towards the EU; knowledge of international institutions and trust into these institutions: UN, UNESCO, NATO, EU, European Parliament, European Commission, OSCE, Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights, International Court of Justice; Self-rated knowledge about the EU (scale); awareness of application for EU membership by own country; accession to EU of own country as a good thing; approval of EU membership of own country if a referendum was held; advantageousness of EU accession for the own country, the own person and following groups: people with and without foreign language skills, entrepreneurs, politicians, professionals such as doctors or lawyers, young people, children, employees, industrial workers, medium-sized businesses, teachers, civil servants, middle-aged people, farmers, the rural population, the unemployed, pensioners, elderly, population of the capital, cultural, religious and other minorities; some regions benefit more than others, all population groups; agreement with the following statements: accession of the own country would be beneficial for the EU, increasing size of EU increases security and peace, would promote the national economy, increase the influence of the own country in Europe, satisfaction of the national government accession policy, increasing influence of the EU in the world if number of members increases, historical and geographical legitimacy of EU membership of the country, increased cultural wealth and standard of living, rising unemployment due to EU enlargement; expected and desired EU accession year of the own country; consent to possible EU accession of Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey; EU or own country as preferred decision-making authority for the following policies: defense, environmental protection, currency, Humanitarian Aid, health and welfare, broadcasting and press, poverty reduction, combating unemployment, agriculture and fisheries, regional compensation, education, science and technology, information on EU , non-European foreign policy, culture, immigration, asylum, fighting against organized crime, police, justice, refugee resettlement, combat of youth delinquency, urban crime and human trafficking, the fight against drugs; preferred source of information about the EU; desire for additional information on the following topics: history of the EU, the EU institutions, European Economic and Monetary Union, Euro, European economy, European single market, further financial / economic issues, agriculture in the EU, European Foreign and Security Policy, international relations of the EU; regional policy of the EU, the European budget, European research and development policy, education policy, cultural policy, youth policy, EU citizenship, consumer protection and environmental protection in the EU, European social policy.

Demography: nationality; family situation; age at end of education; gender; age; occupation; professional position; degree of urbanization; household size; possession of durable goods, role of respondent in the household: main breadwinner, responsible for purchases and household maintenance, religious affiliation, frequency of church attendance, household income

The European Values Study is a large-scale, cross-national and longitudinal survey research program on how Europeans think about family, work, religion, politics, and society. Repeated every nine years in an increasing number of countries, the survey provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of citizens all over Europe.

As previous waves conducted in 1981, 1990, 1999, 2008, the fifth EVS wave maintains a persistent focus on a broad range of values. Questions are highly comparable across waves and regions, making EVS suitable for research aimed at studying trends over time.

The new wave has seen a strengthening of the methodological standards. The full release of the EVS 2017 includes data and documentation of altogether 37 participating countries. For more information, please go to the EVS website.

Morale, religious, societal, political, work, and family values of Europeans.

Topics: 1. Perceptions of life: importance of work, family, friends and acquaintances, leisure time, politics and religion; happiness; self-assessment of own health; memberships in voluntary organisations (religious or church organisations, cultural activities, trade unions, political parties or groups, environment, ecology, animal rights, professional associations, sports, recreation, or other groups, none); active or inactive membership of humanitarian or charitable organisation, consumer organisation, self-help group or mutual aid; voluntary work in the last six months; tolerance towards minorities (people of a different race, heavy drinkers, immigrants, foreign workers, drug addicts, homosexuals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and gypsies - social distance); trust in people; estimation of people´s fair and helpful behavior; internal or external control; satisfaction with life; importance of educational goals: desirable qualities of children.

1. Work: attitude towards work (job needed to develop talents, receiving money without working is humiliating, people turn lazy not working, work is a duty towards society, work always comes first); importance of selected aspects of occupational work; give priority to nationals over foreigners as well as men over women in jobs.

2. Religion and morale: religious denomination; current and former religious denomination; current frequency of church attendance and at the age of 12; self-assessment of religiousness; belief in God, life after death, hell, heaven, and re-incarnation; personal god vs. spirit or life force; importance of God in one´s life (10-point-scale); frequency of prayers; morale attitudes (scale: claiming state benefits without entitlement, cheating on taxes, taking soft drugs, accepting a bribe, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, suicide, paying cash to avoid taxes, casual sex, avoiding fare on public transport, prostitution, in-vitro fertilization, political violence, death penalty).

3. Family: trust in family; most important criteria for a successful marriage or partnership (faithfulness, adequate income, good housing, sharing household chores, children, time for friends and personal hobbies); marriage is an outdated institution; attitude towards traditional understanding of one´s role of man and woman in occupation and family (gender roles); homosexual couples are as good parents as other couples; duty towards society to have children; responsibility of adult children for their parents when they are in need of long-term care; to make own parents proud is a main goal in life.

4. Politics and society: political interest; political participation; preference for individual freedom or social equality; self-assessment on a left-right continuum (10-point-scale) (left-right self-placement); individual vs. state responsibility for providing; take any job vs. right to refuse job when unemployed; competition good vs. harmful for people; equal incomes vs. incentives for individual effort; private vs. government ownership of business and industry; postmaterialism (scale); most important aims of the country for the next ten years; willingness to fight for the country; expectation of future development (less importance placed on work and greater respect for authority); trust in institutions; essential characteristics of democracy; importance of democracy for the respondent; rating democracy in own country; satisfaction with the political system in the country; preferred type of political system (strong leader, expert decisions, army should rule the country, or democracy); vote in elections on local level, national level and European level; political party with the most appeal; another political party that most appeals; assessment of country´s elections (votes are counted fairly, opposition candidates are prevented from running, TV news favors the governing party, voters are bribed, journalists provide fair coverage of elections, election officials are fair, rich people buy elections, voters are threatened with violence at the...

Attitudes towards European Union membership and life satisfaction. Family and children. Elderly people. Health. Social services. Standard of living. Social integration. Employment and mobility.

Topics: Current life satisfaction; life satisfaction compared with five years ago; life satisfaction over the next 5 years; personal situation; economic situation in the country; financial situation of the household; employment situation in the country; personal job situation; trust in public institutions; trust in other social institutions; news viewership on television; news readership of daily newspapers; news listenership on the radio; trust in the media; national pride; European pride; access to modern information technology; attachment to nationality and identification with Europe; contact with other countries and cultures; knowledge of foreign languages; foreign languages that are the most useful to know; contacts with foreign countries; tolerance towards other people; people of other races, nationalities, religions; attitudes towards foreigners; spontaneous image and meaning of the EU; image of the EU; meaning of the EU; meaning of being a citizen of the EU; trust in the EU and its institutions; trust levels in the EU; trust in the institutions and bodies of the EU; trust in European Parliament and in European Commission; support for EU membership; referendum about membership; perceived benefits of EU membership; personal benefits; benefits for the country; expected benefits for various social groups; expected and desired role of the EU in five year’s time; benefits of EU in five years time; support for joint EU decision-making; preferred decision-making mechanism of the enlarged EU about the EU; self-perceived knowledge about the EU; awareness of the EU, its institutions, bodies; interest in EU news; preferred methods for receiving information about the EU; EU topics people would like to know more about; attitudes towards enlargement; perception of support levels for country’s membership in the Member States; awareness of country’s bid for EU membership; feeling informed about enlargement and the accession process; speed and date of accession; assessment of pre-accession funds; ideal number of children; reasons for not having children; number of children; age when the first child was born; preferred action of the government to improve family policy; responsibility for looking after the children (father vs. mother); role of family in the society; responsibility for taking care about elderly parents; preferred way of taking care for elderly parents; financial responsibility; looking after someone who has a long-term illness; assessment of one’s own lifestyle; distances to social services; satisfaction with social and health services (scale); responsibility for social services (government vs. NGOs); lowest monthly income of the household; adequate household income; financial situation of the household; financial problems (paying mortgages, bills, food etc.); assessment of the standard of living; improving the standard of living; possession of household goods; factors of quality of life (work, education, a partner, children, friends, leisure time, holidays, neighbours, going out with friends, sufficient accommodations, being useful to others, feeling recognized, successful career, political participation); auxiliary person; social isolation (scale); socially excluded people; housing environment (scale); subscribe money; reason for living in need; social reason for poverty; risk of poverty; attitudes towards social inequality; active membership in social organisations; unemployment; preferred status of employment; size of workplace; sector; working hours; working conditions and work load (scale); frequency of negative working conditions; frequency of moves over the last ten years; reasons for moving/staying; move in the next five years; preferred place to move; move and work in a foreign European country.

Demography: Occupational status; marital status; age; gender; age at termination of school training; educational level; size of household; size of community; size of residence; church attendance; income of the household and sources; occupational status of the head of the household.

Monitoring the public opinion in the European Union is the mission of the Standard Eurobarometer surveys conducted on behalf of the European Commission since the early seventies at least two times a year in all member states. In the nineties the program has been complemented by small scale Flash Eurobarometer and the Central and Eastern Eurobarometer, later replaced by the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer.GENERAL TOPICS- CULTURAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY:Attitudes towards immigrants and out-groups / National (European) prideNational vs. European identity (Feeling European) / Regional identity- INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Attitudes towards other EU countries / International conflicts in the next 12 monthsPersonal perception of general threats / Risk of a new world warThe role of the EU and the United States in the world / Trust in people from other countries / Understanding among EU countries (development)- LIVING CONDITIONS: The respondent's personal situation / Economic and financial situation last yearExpectations of change over the next year / The current situation in different social domains / Happiness / Life satisfaction- MEDIA, INFORMATION AND LANGUAGE: Access to Information Society Services / Frequency of media use / Knowledge of foreign languages- POLITICAL ATTITUDES: Satisfaction with democracy / Satisfaction withÿ democracy in the EUBasic attitudes towards society / (social change) / Left-right self-placementAttitudes towards society / (Anomia) / Legitimacy of political systems / Trust in Institutions- POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: Interest in politics / Frequency of political discussion / Frequency of persuading others of one's opinion- POLITICAL PARTIES: Strength of political party attachment / Party to which respondent feels close(r) toVote intention (nat. elections) / Last vote (nat. elections) / Electoral participation (EP)Vote intention (EP)- VALUES AND RELIGION: Value orientation / (Inglehart Items) / Education goalsSocial and political values / Religious denomination / Church attendanceImportance of religion / Religiosity- EUROPEAN UNION TOPICS: European Unification / Attitudes towards the unification of Western Europe /Attitudes towards the membership in the European Community (European Union) /The feeling that one's country has benefited from being a member of the European Community (European Union) / Attitudes if the Common Market had been scrappedActual and preferred European unification speed / Attitudes towards a European Government (Political Union) / Interest in European Community (European Union) politics / Feeling informed about EU / Importance of European Community (European Union) matters for the future / Personal meaning of the European UnionPersonal European Union image (positive/negative)- EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS:Awareness of the European Parliament in the media / Impression of the European Parliament as a result of what has been read or heard / Importance of the European Parliament's role in the life of the European Community (European Union) / Desired future role of the European Parliament / Attitudes towards a future European Government responsible to the European Parliament / Awareness of the European Commission in the media / Impression of the European Commission as a result of what has been read or heard / EU Presidency: awareness / EU Presidency: importance / Trust in European Institutions- EUROPEAN SINGLE MARKET: Awareness of the Single European Market in the media / The Single European Market - a good thing / Awareness of the Single European Market - hope or fear / Common European Currency (for / against)- EUROPEAN POLICIES: Common policy areas (national/EU decision level) / The adoption of the European Community (European Union) charter of fundamental social rights - a good thing ?- DEMOGRAPHICS: Respondent / Age / Age when finished full time education / Marital status / Membership: political party / Membership: trade union / Occupation of respondentSex / Subjective social class / National provenance- HOUSEHOLD VARIABLES:Head of household / MIE / Household composition: children (age groups)Household composition: size / Household income / Membership: trade unionOccupation of head of household / MIE / Ownership of durables in householdFixed/mobile telephone- REGION: Region (NUTS 1 / NUTS 2) / Size of community / Type of community

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology. Eurobarometer 83.3 covered the following special topics: (1) Attitudes towards the EU, (2) Europe 2020, (3) European economy, (4) European citizenship, (5) EU budget, and (6) Economic knowledge and attitude towards statistics. Respondents' opinions were collected regarding life satisfaction, the standard of living, self-esteem, and employment. Respondents were also questioned about the economic crisis, economic expectations, and public debt. Additional questions were asked regarding national governmental statistics, EU policies, national and European identity, participation in the EU, EU membership, and democracy. Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or mobile telephone and other goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology. This round of Eurobarometer surveys covers the following special topics:(1) Europe 2020, (2) European Economy (3) European Citizenship and (4) Information behaviour and Assessment of Media Presentation with Regard to European Political Matters. Respondents' opinions were collected regarding life satisfaction, the standard of living, politics, trust, self-esteem, employment, and safety. Respondents were also questioned about the economic crisis, economic expectations, public debt, the media, and education. Additional questions were asked regarding EU policies, national and European identity, media usage, sources of information, participation in the EU, EU membership, and democracy. Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or mobile telephone and other goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

The European Values Study is a large-scale, cross-national and longitudinal survey research program on how Europeans think about family, work, religion, politics, and society. Repeated every nine years in an increasing number of countries, the survey provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of citizens all over Europe.

As previous waves conducted in 1981, 1990, 1999, 2008, the fifth EVS wave maintains a persistent focus on a broad range of values. Questions are highly comparable across waves and regions, making EVS suitable for research aimed at studying trends over time.

The new wave has seen a strengthening of the methodological standards. The full release of the EVS 2017 includes data and documentation of altogether 37 participating countries. For more information, please go to the EVS website.

Morale, religious, societal, political, work, and family values of Europeans.

Topics: 1. Perceptions of life: importance of work, family, friends and acquaintances, leisure time, politics and religion; happiness; self-assessment of own health; memberships in voluntary organisations (religious or church organisations, cultural activities, trade unions, political parties or groups, environment, ecology, animal rights, professional associations, sports, recreation, or other groups, none); active or inactive membership of humanitarian or charitable organisation, consumer organisation, self-help group or mutual aid; voluntary work in the last six months; tolerance towards minorities (people of a different race, heavy drinkers, immigrants, foreign workers, drug addicts, homosexuals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and gypsies - social distance); trust in people; estimation of people´s fair and helpful behavior; internal or external control; satisfaction with life; importance of educational goals: desirable qualities of children.

1. Work: attitude towards work (job needed to develop talents, receiving money without working is humiliating, people turn lazy not working, work is a duty towards society, work always comes first); importance of selected aspects of occupational work; give priority to nationals over foreigners as well as men over women in jobs.

2. Religion and morale: religious denomination; current and former religious denomination; current frequency of church attendance and at the age of 12; self-assessment of religiousness; belief in God, life after death, hell, heaven, and re-incarnation; personal god vs. spirit or life force; importance of God in one´s life (10-point-scale); frequency of prayers; morale attitudes (scale: claiming state benefits without entitlement, cheating on taxes, taking soft drugs, accepting a bribe, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, suicide, paying cash to avoid taxes, casual sex, avoiding fare on public transport, prostitution, in-vitro fertilization, political violence, death penalty).

3. Family: trust in family; most important criteria for a successful marriage or partnership (faithfulness, adequate income, good housing, sharing household chores, children, time for friends and personal hobbies); marriage is an outdated institution; attitude towards traditional understanding of one´s role of man and woman in occupation and family (gender roles); homosexual couples are as good parents as other couples; duty towards society to have children; responsibility of adult children for their parents when they are in need of long-term care; to make own parents proud is a main goal in life.

4. Politics and society: political interest; political participation; preference for individual freedom or social equality; self-assessment on a left-right continuum (10-point-scale) (left-right self-placement); individual vs. state responsibility for providing; take any job vs. right to refuse job when unemployed; competition good vs. harmful for people; equal incomes vs. incentives for individual effort; private vs. government ownership of business and industry; postmaterialism (scale); most important aims of the country for the next ten years; willingness to fight for the country; expectation of future development (less importance placed on work and greater respect for authority); trust in institutions; essential characteristics of democracy; importance of democracy for the respondent; rating democracy in own country; satisfaction with the political system in the country; preferred type of political system (strong leader, expert decisions, army should rule the country, or democracy); vote in elections on local level, national level and European level; political party with the most appeal; another political party that most appeals; assessment of country´s elections (votes are counted fairly, opposition candidates are prevented from running, TV news favors the governing party, voters are bribed, journalists provide fair coverage of elections, election officials are fair, rich people buy elections, voters are threatened with violence at the...

Moral, religious, societal, political, work, and family values of Europeans.

Topics:

Leisure time: importance of areas of life; feeling of happiness; memberships and honorary activities in clubs, parties, organizations, citizens´ initiatives and occupation organizations; interactions in leisure time; tolerance regarding minorities, those of other beliefs and foreigners; inter-human trust; self-effectiveness (scale); general contentment with life (scale).

Work: importance of selected characteristics of occupational work (scale); personal employment; general work satisfaction (scale); self-determination at work (scale); work ethic (scale); attitude to achievement-based pay and following work instructions without criticism; priority of nationals over foreigners as well as men over women with shortage of jobs; assumed priority of individual or social reasons for the situation of economic need of individuals; freedom of the unemployed to reject a job offer (scale).

Politics: party preference; attitude to foreign workers in one´s country; fear of the future; assimilation and integration of immigrants; concept of a just society (more welfare state or liberalism, scale); interest in political news in the media; individualism and thinking of the community; interest in politics; political participation; self-assessment on a left-right continuum (scale); self-responsibility or governmental provision (scale); attitude to competition freedom and entrepreneur freedom (scale); satisfaction with democracy; attitude to the current political system of the country and judgment on the political system of the country ten years ago (scale); preference for a democratic political system or for strong leadership of an individual politician (scale); attitude to democracy (scale); loss of national characteristics through unification of Europe.

Religion: individual or general standard for good and evil; current and perhaps earlier religious denomination; current frequency of church attendance and at the age of 12; importance of religious celebration at birth, marriage and funeral; self-assessment of religiousness; ability of the religious community in moral questions, with problems in family life, spiritual needs and current social problems of the country; belief in God, life after death, hell, heaven, sin, telepathy and reincarnation; belief in God or nihilism (scale); importance of God in one´s own life (scale); comfort and strength through belief; prayer and meditation; frequency of prayer; possession and belief in lucky charms or talisman (scale); reading and observing horoscopes; attitude to separation of church (religion) and state (scale).

Family and marriage: important criteria for a successful marriage (scale); attitude to marriage and the traditional family structure (scale); attitude to one´s own children (scale); attitude to traditional understanding of one´s role of man and woman in occupation and family (scale); attitude to a traditional or liberal parent-child relation; importance of educational goals; attitude to abortion.

Society: preference for individual freedom or social equality; post-materialism (scale); preferred social development (scale); attitude to technical progress; trust in institutions; observing individual human rights in the country; attitude to environmental protection (scale); closeness to family, the neighborhood, people in the region, countrymen, Europeans and humanity; closeness to older people, the unemployed, foreigners and handicapped well as readiness to make an effort for these groups; personal reasons for assistance with older people as well as foreigners; identification with the city, the region, the nation, Europe and the world; national pride. morals and sexuality: moral attitudes (tax evasion, theft, use of drugs, lying, bribe money, corruption, euthanasia, suicide, environmental pollution, alcohol at the wheel; scale); moral attitudes to partnership and sexuality (homosexuality, abortion, divorce, promiscuity; scale); assumed spreading of immoral behavior in the population of the country (scale); attitude to punishment dependent on the situation of the culprit or the victim (scale).

Demography: sex; year of birth; marital status and living together with a partner; number of children; school education; age at termination of school training; employment; superior function and span of control; company size; occupation (ISCO88) and occupational position; length of unemployment; size of hous...

Five countries from the CEE region reached higher life satisfaction than the European Union average in 2022. People living in Slovenia and Romania had the highest overall life satisfaction level.