Bulgarians are the least happy and most negatively-minded of all citizens of the European Union

The survey also found that Bulgaria and Romania - the two countries that joined the EU together in January 2007 - are quite different from each other. "While the social realities of Romanians in many ways are similar to those of people living in the other Member States, life in Bulgaria appears to be decisively different. People in Bulgaria rate most aspects of life considerably less positive," the pollsters say.

The survey was taken between November 17 and December 19, 2006, among 26,755 EU citizens aged 15 and over living in the Member States and the two countries that were at that time about to join the EU: Bulgaria and Romania. It covers opinions and feelings about various aspects of social, economical, political and everyday life of the European citizens.

While the EU average for happiness is 87 per cent, the extent and intensity of happiness is not the same throughout the EU. People in the former EU15 countries tend to feel happier than those living in the ten countries that joined in 2004 (28 per cent vs. 17 per cent are very happy). In Bulgaria, over half of the interviewees say they do not feel happy (55 per cent).

Bulgaria also has the lowest levels of satisfaction with the quality of life and the standard of living (less than half of the citizens express satisfaction with these two important components of their life satisfaction). The levels of satisfaction are highest in the Benelux, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

People in Bulgaria are also by far the least satisfied with their living environment. Satisfaction is highest in the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland.

People in Bulgaria, along with Romanians, are least satisfied with their job. Overall, the level of job satisfaction is relatively high in the EU, with a score of 3.621 on a scale of 1 to 5. Workers in Northern Europe tend to be most satisfied.

In Bulgaria, only just over 4 out of 10 workers agree that their job requires them to keep learning new things. This contrasts strikingly the overall trends in the EU where continuous learning is extremely common among managers and workers that stayed in full-time education until the age of 20 or older. Particularly In the Nordic countries, and also in Malta and Latvia people are widely satisfied with this aspect of their job.

Bulgaria, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Netherlands, represent one notable exception to the prevailing perception in the EU that getting a good education and working hard are the two most important things for getting ahead in life. In Bulgaria and the other three countries mentioned, being lucky is more important than working hard is.

Bulgaria, together with Italy, has the highest proportion of people who feel left out of society (both 21 per cent). In most Member States only around 1 person in 10 feels left out of society.

BTA