The Diplomat
Spain is the second unhappiest country in Europe, second only to Hungary, according to the annual Global Happiness survey, conducted by Ipsos and released yesterday.
The survey, conducted between November 19 and December 3, 2021 in 30 countries, indicates that 67% of the world’s adult population feels “very happy” or “quite happy”, an increase of four points compared to 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic broke out, which brought the levels down to 63%, the lowest peak since 2017.
In the case of Spain, 55% of respondents were “very happy” or “fairly happy,” which is twelve points lower than the global average. In any case, the survey shows a notable increase in the number of people in who declare themselves “very” or “quite” happy in Spain with respect to 2020 (17 points more compared to 38% in the first year of the pandemic). In fact, the percentage of the Spanish population that feels happy already exceeds the pre-pandemic figures: 55% in 2022 compared to 46% in 2019.
Among European countries, Hungarians are the only ones who are less happy than Spaniards (51%). At the top of the European and even world list is the Netherlands, with 86%. In Europe, it is followed by the United Kingdom (83%) and France (81%). In Spain, as in the rest of the world, the main sources of happiness are health, family and finding meaning in life. In addition, living conditions (water, food and housing) are given more importance in Spain than in other countries.
