Walter Finch
IF you are Spanish and happy then you are statistically most likely to be a man under 29 with money to burn.
The findings, from the National Statistics Institute (INE), may not come as such a surprise to some, perhaps.
But happiness seems to be quite widely spread out among the Spanish population, with two-thirds (67.3%) of people aged 16 or over reporting they felt happy ‘always or almost always’ during the past year.
Men were slightly more likely to report feeling happy than women, with 68.4% of men and 66.2% of women reporting the feeling.
Less of a surprise might be that the rich are happier than the poor.
The number of people who felt happy ‘always or almost always’ increased as income levels rose, with 70.7% of those with high incomes feeling happy, compared to 61.3% of those with low incomes.
Young people were found to be happier with old people, with 62.5% of those over 65 feeling happy, despite having the most free time.
Interestingly, the economic situation and lack of free time did not seem to affect the level of happiness.
The average satisfaction rating for the economic situation was 6.3 out of 10, while the indicator for free time dropped slightly to 6.6 out of 10, compared to 6.8 in 2018.
The numbers were arrived at by asking the question: ‘How often did you feel happy?’
Although some might grumble at this methodology as it is dependent on the respondent answering truthfully when they might not even know themselves.
READ MORE:
- Percentage of Spaniards at risk of poverty or social exclusion falls two points to 26%
- Wanted by Spain’s Interior Ministry: Companies to help incinerate the police’s record drug hauls
- Spain’s disgraced ex-king Juan Carlos I extends visit to country to undergo medical tests
