ZAGREB, June 10, 2018 – Croats have a relatively high feeling of happiness, they are most satisfied with their health, friendships and family relations, while they are most dissatisfied with certainty about the future, with their job and living standards, according to the findings of the CRO-WELL Croatian Longitudinal Well-Being Survey.
The online survey is being conducted in four cycles from 2015 to 2019 by the Ivo Pilar Institute, with the financial support of the Croatian Science Foundation.
From 1 October 2016 to 1 October 2017, 5,036 respondents took part in the survey, while 2,448 are taking part in the current cycle which ends on October 1 this year, survey leader Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan said.
Women make up 75.5% of respondents, respondents are 35 years old on average, 56% have a university degree and 66.8% are employed.
The findings show that, on a scale from 1 to 10, their general satisfaction with their lives is 6.9 on average.
Respondents are most satisfied with their health (7.41 on the scale), friendships (7.6) and family relations (7.54). They are relatively satisfied with security (6.8), how they look (6.69), their love life (6.52), their achievements (6.69), the community (6.34) and free time (6.24). They are relatively dissatisfied with their certainty about the future (5.34), their job (5.9) and living standards (5.83).
Respondents are relatively happy (6.85 on the scale). Over the past 12 months, they cited 6.4 positive and 2.5 negative events that happened to them. Positive events included the adoption or birth of a child, marriage, engagement, and their child’s success in school, while negative events included sexual harassment, the death of a partner, being arrested, being robbed and domestic violence.
The findings show that the more satisfied with life and happier people are, the more frequently they experience positive events, Kaliterna Lipovčan said.
The survey also shows that respondents aged 60 who are physically more active, including exercising regularly, taking trips or having hobbies, have a higher estimate of their well-being. Also, parents of children with disabilities do not differ in estimating their satisfaction with life and happiness than parents of other children, but they are far less satisfied with their health and free time.
