Download PDFSeveral years ago was edited a book, which contained the world’s happiness ranking. Unfortunately, Moldova had to suffer at that point, because of the black PR, as we were considered an unhappy nation. It’s true that the living environment from our country is not one of the most encouraging ones, however… Therefore, Magenta Consulting decided to find out on what position Moldovans see themselves on the happiness scale. The data was obtained via Magenta National Screening quarterly survey, conducted on 1400 respondents from 24 urban localities, the conclusions of which are presented below.
More than half of respondents consider themselves happy people (64%). Other 33% of the interviewed are somewhat happy, while those really unhappy cover only 3% of the total. The scale of happiness included 10 positions: from 1 to 10, which allows us to state that almost 16% gave their happiness a 10 (the highest level of happiness).
So, who are those happy people? We shall start the analysis by saying that women are happier than men, only at a slight difference. Happiness tends to be more intense for teenagers and those aged over 40. At the same time, the age segments considered most active – 25-40, show a decreased level of happiness. Another particularity relates to respondents spoken language – as Romanian speaking people find themselves considerably happier. In terms of education, the tendency is that with the increase in the levels of finished education, the perception of how happy the person is, also increases.
Although, the Moldovan saying teaches us that money doesnt bring happiness, the numbers shows the reverse - the higher the monthly income of the respondent, the happier they are. However, wed like to mention that those with the lowest income also consider themselves happy. Considering the rather disastrous demographic situation from Moldova, we can say that married people are happier than those single. Moreover, it takes 4 people in a family to reach the highest happiness index.
In general, the happy respondents are relatively confident in media sources. They trust more the visual and auditory media channels, i.e. radio and TV, and less the newspapers and magazines. Internet has been described as the most credible source. One could interpret this reserved attitude towards certain media sources - as a defense mechanism for well-being/ happiness.
Several explanations can be given for the above stated. Although, our people generally tend to be dissatisfied with themselves, the survey presents the opposite. Perhaps, the living conditions taught us to enjoy and appreciate what we have in present times, or as they say "may it not get any worse". We believe that nowadays assessing the level of happiness takes place based on the comparison of your situation to the situation of others in need, or comparing the current circumstances with those from the past. In other words, if today you live better then yesterday, then today you are one happy person. On the other hand, happiness is such a concept, the definition of which considerably varies from one individual to another. People will be happy as long as their current situation meets the criteria of happiness which are used as a base of analysis in present times.