Spain is the sixth happiest country in the EU; Belgium, Austria, Holland and Finland, the first

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Declaring yourself happy is not the same as being happy, but in the complex eagerness to measure the mood of Europeans, Eurostat published on Thursday a statistic in which the happiest countries in the EU are classified according to their responses citizens to a question: how often do you feel happy? Belgians, Dutch, Austrians and Finns lead the ranking jointly: 76% of those consulted in those countries claim to have been happy "all or most of the time" during the last four weeks. They are closely followed by Luxembourg (74%), and Spain (72%). If you look at the extremes and take only those who say they are happy "all the time", Spain is in the lead with 29% of those polled. Almost the same percentage of Latvians (28%) claim not to be "never or almost never."

Putting figures to such a subjective feeling is not simple, and the abysmal differences between studies indicate that its reliability is limited. Factors such as sincerity, higher or lower expectations, the size of the sample or simply the best or worst mood of the interviewee that day, can influence when manifesting feeling lucky. If the answers to the survey, conducted in 2018, —before the political instability is accentuated— has its reflection in reality, issues such as climate or wealth would not be entirely decisive. Spain, the country with the highest life expectancy in the EU but also the second with the highest unemployment rates, is the only one in the southern states that exceeds the community average of happy citizens - 62%. Although the countries of Northern and Central Europe, where GDP and per capita income tend to be higher, lead the table, French, German or Swedish, with more advanced economies, are behind Polish and Spanish.

If you travel to the classification line, there is a greater correlation between finance and happiness. In Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Romania and Greece, less than half of the citizens questioned about it were proclaimed to be happy.

In parallel to the statistics, Eurostat has also evaluated other scales of quality of life, this time asking citizens to score 0 to 10 points. To the question, how satisfied are you with your life? It is the Finns (8.1), Austrians (8.0), Danes, Poles and Swedes (7.8) who put a higher score at the level of pleased with your current situation. Bulgarians, Croats, Greeks and Lithuanians are in line and do not reach 6.5. The Spanish put the same rating as the community average 7.3 points, four tenths more than in 2013, the last time the study was done. In the group of Europeans that note has risen three tenths in the last five years.

None of the parameters exposed by Eurostat is going down. Satisfaction with the financial situation improves five tenths to stand at 6.5 points, and Europeans put their personal relationships 7.9, one tenth more than in 2013. The Spanish are less satisfied with their financial situation than their European partners (6.3), but they value their social life higher (8.2).

Attempts to establish a classification of happiness according to the country where you live are not exclusive to Eurostat. And its results are disparate. The Network of Solutions for Sustainable Development - a multidisciplinary research body linked to the UN - publishes each year a list that is not based on the opinions of its citizens, but on variables such as gross domestic product, social assistance, hope of life, freedom, the perception of generosity or corruption and the quality of life of immigrants. In its 2019 edition, Spain is ranked number 30, and the Nordic countries take the podium: Finland, Denmark and Norway are first, second and third. Another report, this one by Ipsos in 28 countries, produced very different conclusions for Spain: only 46% of adults surveyed said they felt happy.