Austria has been declared the happiest nation within the European Union, according to a yearly survey carried out by the bloc’s statistics body.
Eurostat analyses every year how people living in the 27 member states bloc feel about their lives after a pool of respondents rank their happiness on a scale from zero – indicating absolute dissatisfaction – to 10.
Newly-published data referring to 2022 showed people in Austria gave their happiness levels an average score of 7.9.
The central European country was followed in the Quality of Life Indicators chart by Poland, Romania and Finland, the scores of which were also well above 7.5.
On the opposite end of the chart, Bulgaria performed the worst, achieving only a 5.6 score.
Surprisingly, Germany came second-to-last in the chart, with those surveyed within the nation giving their lives an average score of 6.5.
This marks a significant shift as figures for 2021 published last year suggested Germans were much more satisfied, as they scored themselves a 7.1.
The EU average score for 2022 when it comes to happiness, Eurostat noted, is 7.1, which signals citizens across the bloc generally tended to be quite satisfied with their lives.
Eurostat didn’t break down what is making the people polled in each country feel happy or disappointed but noted the wealth of the nations may not be the main factor.
It said: “It is interesting to note that some countries associated with low levels of income in the recent past… such as Romania and Poland, are among the countries where life satisfaction is highest – showing the complexity of the relation between subjective well-being and economic welfare”.
Age, family and financial stability impacted the overall satisfaction of survey respondents, the European organisation believes.
Moreover, in every member state, Eurostat noted that life satisfaction increased in parallel with the level of education.
Austria has a free and public school system, with the first nine years of education mandatory for all citizens.
The country is home to more than nine million people. Lying in the eastern Alps, it doesn’t have access to the sea, but has been gifted with some of the most stunning lakes in the world.
The outstanding natural landscapes in Austria compete with the stunning architecture that can be found in the country’s cities and towns, with buildings ranging from traditional wooden cabins to Baroque cathedrals.
Moreover, Austria is deemed a safe nation, with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office saying “crime levels are generally low” in its travel advice for the country.
