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“Happiness Atlas”: Germans not as happy as they were before Corona
Rejoicing as high as heaven – saddened to death? In the new “Happiness Atlas”, respondents rate their satisfaction with an average of 6.92 points on a scale between 0 and 10 (symbolic image). photo
© Silas Stein/dpa
During Corona, German satisfaction reached a low point. Now things are going uphill again – but only slowly. The study results of the new “Happiness Atlas” show why this could be.
The people in Germany are still after the end Corona pandemic not yet as satisfied as in 2019. This emerges from the new “Happiness Atlas” that the University of Freiburg created with the support of the South German Class Lottery (SKL).
On a scale between 0 and 10, respondents rate their satisfaction with an average of 6.92 points – 0.22 points less than in 2019 (7.14). This was the result of regular interviews in which around 11,400 people aged 16 and over were surveyed between August 2022 and June 2023.
Compared to the results of the previous Happiness Atlas (survey between January and October 2022), satisfaction has increased slightly – by 0.06 points. “The modest increase in happiness makes it clear that certain impairments caused by the pandemic are still having an impact, even though almost all restrictions have been lifted,” explains Bettina Rothärmel, Chairwoman of the Joint Class Lottery of the States, in the foreword to the “Happiness Atlas”. In addition, there were multiple crises, such as inflation or the war in Ukraine, which had an impact on satisfaction.
Women continue to be more dissatisfied than men of the same age
Another reason: According to the Happiness Atlas, the number of people who only gave values between 0 and 4 on the satisfaction scale and are therefore considered “extremely unhappy” has remained almost unchanged. According to their own statements, women are still more dissatisfied with their lives than men of the same age (difference of 0.06 points). Accordingly, the gap is no longer as big as it was in 2020, when the difference was 0.19 points.
According to the study results, satisfaction with family life has developed slightly positively: it rose by 0.06 points to a value of 7.48. Despite inflation, there was also an increase of 0.15 points (6.64) in income satisfaction. According to the study, this could be related to a habituation effect.
When comparing the German regions, the leaders and bottom of the table are unchanged compared to the previous survey: The Happiness Atlas sees the happiest people in Schleswig-Holstein (7.21 points), the unhappiest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (6.19).