The happiest country in the European Union has been named

It has become known in which country of the European Union its residents feel the happiest. The survey data were published by the Independent newspaper with reference to Eurostat.

So the happiest country among the member states of the bloc in 2023 was Austria. It scored 7.9 points out of 10 in the annual publication of the agency on "quality of life indicators", based on surveys conducted in all EU member states.

Three countries came in second place: Poland, Romania and Finland. They scored the same number of points - 7.7 out of 10 possible.

Next came Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Italy, Spain and France, some of the EU's biggest economies, hover around the 7.1 average. Germany was one of the unhappiest countries in the survey coming in at the penultimate place.

In last place was Bulgaria. It scored only 5.6 points on the overall life satisfaction index in 2023.

Eurostat noted that in compiling the ranking its experts wanted to "capture trends in the subjective well-being of European citizens," noting that "EU citizens are generally quite satisfied with their lives in general, with an average score of 7.1 out of a possible 10 points."

The report points out that during the survey respondents assessed not only material well-being, but also such factors as the level of education, medicine, social protection, and security.