According to the Eurostat survey which was carried out in 2013, the happiest Europeans were found in the Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark and Sweden – where the average rating was 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Following the Nordics, the Netherlands and Austria ranked their satisfaction with life at 7.8.
The European average was 7.1, with the lowest scores coming from Bulgarians who weighed in with an average score of 4.8, while the next least-satisfied groups were the Greeks, Cypriots, Hungarians and Portuguese -- all at 6.2.
According to Eurostat, the results were somewhat surprising given Europe’s current financial difficulties.
Good health was one of the main factors determining life satisfaction according to those surveyed, while unemployed and inactive people were on average less satisfied, which is not surprising.
Younger people tended to report higher degrees of life satisfaction, the only exception being those aged 65 to 74 who saw life in a brighter light than young people.
There were few reported differences between men and women.