Romania and Finland lead in 2025
In 2025, Romania and Finland record the highest average life satisfaction scores in the dataset, both at 7.8 on the 0 to 10 scale.
Long-term trends • Living conditions
Life satisfaction in Europe
How people rate their life as a whole
Life satisfaction is a direct measure of how people evaluate their overall quality of life. This page tracks average self-reported life satisfaction across European countries from 2021 to 2025. The indicator is measured on a scale from 0 to 10, where higher values indicate greater satisfaction with life as a whole.
The time series shows how average life satisfaction changed in recent years: which countries consistently report high scores, where satisfaction increased, and where it declined. The latest map and table provide a clear snapshot of the most recent year.
Explore the data
Key insights
Bulgaria remains the lowest-scoring country
Bulgaria has the lowest life satisfaction score in the latest year, although its value increased from 5.7 in 2021 to 6.3 in 2025.
Most changes are modest
Across the five-year period, most countries show only gradual movement, suggesting that life satisfaction tends to change slowly over time.
Key comparisons
Selected highlights from the life satisfaction dataset, 2021–2025. Values are average scores on a scale from 0 to 10.
Extended analysis
1) Life satisfaction captures subjective well-being
Life satisfaction is different from income, poverty or housing indicators because it reflects how people evaluate their life as a whole. It combines many aspects of living conditions, including health, income, family life, security, work, housing and the broader social environment.
The indicator is based on average self-reported ratings from people aged 16 years and over. A higher value means that people in that country report greater satisfaction with their life overall.
2) The 2025 snapshot shows a relatively narrow European range
In the latest year, the highest average life satisfaction scores were recorded in Romania (7.8), Finland (7.8), Denmark (7.7), Austria (7.7), Poland (7.7) and Norway (7.7).
At the other end of the ranking, the lowest values were recorded in Bulgaria (6.3), Greece (6.9), Latvia (6.9), Germany (7.0) and France, Italy and Hungary (all 7.1).
3) Cyprus shows the strongest increase
The largest increase between 2021 and 2025 was recorded in Cyprus, where the average score rose from 6.7 to 7.4. Other notable increases were observed in Croatia (+0.6), Bulgaria (+0.6), Hungary (+0.6), Germany (+0.5, from 2022) and Malta (+0.5).
These gains show that subjective well-being can improve over relatively short periods, although the magnitude of change is generally smaller than in many economic indicators.
4) Declines are limited and concentrated in a few countries
The largest declines over the period were recorded in Austria and Finland, both decreasing by 0.3 score points between their first available value and 2025. Sweden also declined by 0.2 score points.
Even after these declines, Austria and Finland remain among the countries with the highest life satisfaction scores in Europe. This illustrates why changes over time should be read together with the latest level.
5) Life satisfaction complements objective living-condition indicators
A high life satisfaction score does not automatically mean that a country has the highest income or the lowest housing costs. Subjective well-being reflects a broader mix of social, economic and personal factors.
This is why life satisfaction should be read alongside indicators such as poverty rate, income inequality, housing affordability, average salary and health outcomes. Together, these indicators provide a more complete picture of how people live across Europe.
How to read this indicator
The indicator measures the average self-reported life satisfaction of people aged 16 years and over. Respondents rate their life as a whole on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means not satisfied at all and 10 means completely satisfied. The data show average scores, not percentages. Iceland and Liechtenstein are not shown because comparable data were not available in the dataset used here. Data for Switzerland are currently available up to 2024. Data for Germany and Portugal are available from 2022.