During the survey, 30% of Russians (3 percentage points less than last year) said that they were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” with their lives, 17% were dissatisfied (1 percentage point less than last year), 6% were very dissatisfied. 36% of Russians are satisfied with their lives (in 2020 there were 34% of them), 5% are very satisfied (2 percentage points less than in 2020).
The happiness index is the difference between satisfied and dissatisfied with life. According to this indicator, Russia took fifth place from the end, ahead of only Ghana, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Iraq, the study shows.
The “happiness index” in Russia remains at its lowest level in the last ten years. In 2013 it was 24 points, in 2014 it rose sharply to 59, then only decreased to 18 in 2021.
The top 5 happiest countries include Colombia, Kazakhstan, Albania, Malaysia and Azerbaijan. As a rule, residents of Latin America, Africa and East Asia leads in the “happiness index”, and residents of Europe, the Middle East and Russia is always more pessimistic, the study notes.
In general, among the inhabitants of the planet, 13% are very satisfied with their lives, 43% are quite satisfied, and 13% are dissatisfied with their lives to varying degrees.
The most unhappy, according to the survey, are residents of Afghanistan, 36% say they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, in Ghana, Ukraine and Iraq such 31%, Pakistan Turkey – 23%.
“The level of happiness is not directly related to the level of income. At the same time, Russians traditionally compared themselves not with their neighbors (like most citizens of other countries), but with the situation in economically developed countries,” commented Andrey Milekhin, Doctor of Sociology and President of Romir.
The study of the “happiness index” was conducted as part of the annual survey of the inhabitants of the planet “End of the Year”. 41,560 people from 44 countries were interviewed. In each country, a representative sample was at least 1,000 men and women, according to the Romir website.