The ranking of the happiest EU countries has been published: who is in the first place and why Germany is lagging behind because of the war in Ukraine

Every year, the European Commission's statistical agency Eurostat measures how happy the population is in each EU country. Austria took the top spot in the ranking, while Germany, compared to last year, is lagging behind due to Russia's war with Ukraine and the wave of immigrants.

One might assume that the richer a country is, the happier its people are, but this is not the case, Euronews writes. Austria, Poland and Romania are among the three happiest EU countries this year.

Austrians rated their level of happiness at an average of 7.9 out of 10 points. Austria is a wealthy country, so this may not come as a surprise, the publication writes.

However, in two other countries - Romania and Poland (7.7 points each) - the level of life satisfaction does not depend on money, because the countries are not very rich. As Euronews points out, factors such as age, education level, marital status, rather than wealth, may be more indicative of overall satisfaction.

Germany ranks second to last

Despite having one of the strongest economies among the 27 EU countries, Germany's happiness scores fell by as much as 0.6 points: from 7.1 in 2021 to 6.5 in 2022, and it now ranks second to last. This is a stunning result, Euronews writes.

The Rheingold Institute in Cologne (Germany) conducted its own research on the causes of German dissatisfaction. It turned out that the percentage of people with anxiety problems is as high as 20%. Germany is suffering from an economic depression, along with anxiety over Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as from growing immigration and a relatively inept government, the Euronews article says.

Education and happiness are interdependent

It seems that the level of happiness depends to a large extent on the level of education, which reflects the level of income. In every country included in the ranking, life satisfaction increased in line with the level of education. In Slovakia, this jump was the largest, with a difference of about 1.6 points between those with higher education and those with primary education, the publication noted.

Bulgaria ranks last

In fact, Bulgaria was the only country out of the 27 surveyed to receive an overall score of less than 6 out of 10 - 5.6 points. Despite this unfortunate result, urban residents are more satisfied than people living in villages.

However, it's not all gloom and doom. Euronews notes that countries with lower levels of happiness saw a slight increase between 2018 and 2022, while the "happier" countries saw the opposite.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about the countries where the English language is the best spoken. Ukraine is among the ranking.

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