A depressed nation – Why is every second Hungarian sad?

Ipsos’s latest research showed that Hungarians’ levels of happiness have significantly worsened since last year. Compared to 2019’s 50%, now 44% say they are unhappy and 11% that they are very unhappy, while 45% consider themselves happy or very happy.

Ipsos has made a world happiness map of 27 countries. According to their research, Hungary and Spain are the least happy countries in Europe, while the Netherlands is the happiest globally, reported szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu.

19,516 adults participated in the survey worldwide, and nearly two-thirds of them reported themselves to be happy.

The global average suggests that six out of 10 (63%) people feel happy in their day-to-day lives; however, that number is much lower in Hungary. The global average has not changed much from last year’s statistics, however, the order of the countries has noticeably rearranged. An improvement of over five percentage points was seen in six of the countries involved, while a similar decline was detected in the overall happiness levels of 12 countries.

Health, family and relationships seem to be the most critical factors influencing happiness in Hungary, as well as globally. The fulfilment of physiological needs, social relationships, a meaningful life heading in the right direction and financial security also are significant parts in the lives of the world’s population.

Globally, only 6% of people call themselves unhappy, Chile, Mexico and Peru all showed a setback in the levels of happiness and joined Hungary and Spain among the least happy countries. China is the happiest nation, according to the survey, followed by Russia.

Hungary has been below the world average for nine years now, but this year’s decline is the most significant.

The results of Hungarians do not show a significant difference from the world average, but they do believe that money makes you happy more than others. The importance of personal financial situation and wealth increased in Hungary more than average, while friends, recognition, forgiveness, access to sports and entertainment decreased in their significance to everyday happiness.

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Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu

7 Comments

  1. #kokas- A pesszimizmus nemzeti hobbi a magyarok körében, akár Magyarországon élnek, akár más országban.

  2. The deepness of this question.
    The penetration of it – into ourselves – tearing down walls, breaking down of fortified barriers, held within ourselves, uncovering the “veils” of secrecy, we have in ourselves, to release our-self and reveal under the many layers of our physical and emotional componentry and mechanisms – these are just a short list of questions, that could be asked searching for a factorial answer to the article subject – question.
    It is a challenging expedition, on-going – throughout the stages of our lives, the layers of our lives, to find and discover the real us.
    In times of self doubt – what else can go wrong in our lives – the tide is always running against me, pushing me in the opposite of direction that my life should be heading, the insecurities in us, that take hold of us, placing us at times thinking of the worthlessness, the failings of our life – these again, all in the need to answer this article subject.
    We must never forget, in the times of our emotional despair – our self doubting – still searching for the discovery and the finding of who we really are, putting into positive effect the gifts and talents we – ALL – individually possess and been granted – given to us, that not just in our country but in the Global World, far to many in number, the lives of human beings are in a greater shambolic mess than ours.
    The journey of Discovery – the expeditions through the layers that our lives embark on – take us on, is made easier, by engaging and communicating the position and experiences – the ups and downs – with other human beings.
    The solo approach – emotionally and unnecessarily painful, but a selected ear of professional guidance and assistance, the book of your life story, that you print and write, can eventuate into a best seller.
    Tears it is said :
    “Water the Flowers of the Heart”.
    The richness of this expression, moves me, assists me to grow in the “gloaming” years of me life journey.
    Stay Safe & Well – ALL.

  3. # Gary: what drugs are you on? Can I get some? Are they a very strong version of Prozac or a (legal) form of LSD?

  4. As Paulkus said, it’s a nemzeti hobbi. Complaining and pessemism has been engrained into the Hungarian culture from the Communist Era. They were able to caomplain about everything and vent their frustration with the system and not get arrested, as long as they didn’t complain about the authorities and Party memnber.s It was a means of survival. Unfortunately it will take a few generations to get rid of the habit because its so engrained and passed on from generation to generation. Smoking is so bad in Hungary because people had nothing to do at work and it was cheap.. A good place to start breaking these chains is in the young adults in High School.

  5. I’ve spent 4 years in Hungary and I think that’s enough to have an opinion. To me Hungary was depressing. I was shocked of how poor the standard of living is there. I lived in a few European countries and travelled a lot so I can make a comparison. Budapest is so terribly dirty, smelling of urine and not cleaned properly for 40 years (Nyugati, Keleti, underground stations), full of homeless people. Water was horrible and gave me a health problems, public transport runs frequently but it’s dirty and smelly (except metro line 2 and 4). The quality of food is very, very poor (go to Serbia or Romania to try tasty and FRESH food!), so many times I got something disgusting to eat (even a sour milk in my coffee once), and service is the poorest in Europe (even at Gundel restaurant I got sth else than I ordered because no one spoke English). In a bank I needed to wait for hours to get a service in English. I worked at university and the level of education is very low. When I walked in a city centre I always saw people wearing very modest and cheap clothes (just look how people look on streets then go to Italy and look again) and even a coffee for 700 HUF seemed to be expensive for my Hungarian colleagues and students. I don’t compare it only to the Western world but I also lived in one of post-soviet Baltic country and the standard of living was 10 times better! I moved out to Austria and that’s a different world!

  6. # Steve, I take your point but my nephew and niece here who are 38 and 40 respectively are not in the ‘old mould’ and are quite positive. Of course they have certain grumbles but who doesn’t?

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