Eurobarometer: Rising prices and poverty worry Europeans

The rising cost of living is the biggest concern of Europeans according to the latest Eurobarometer, which covers autumn 2022. And, as high as 93% of the European average reported rising costs as the main concern, the anxiety of the Greeks exceeds that of any other country, but also of all previous ones, reaching a historic 100% - a percentage that has never before appeared in the results of a regular EU poll.

Other fears of Europeans reported in high percentages were the threat of poverty and social exclusion (97% in Greece, 82% at EU level), climate change and the spread of war in Ukraine (81% at EU level). For the Greek participants, rather expectedly, migration was in the third place of concern (86%), while climate change took the fourth place with 84%.

Financial difficulties and unpaid bills

Greeks appear more dissatisfied, more anxious and with views that deviate more often from the European "norm" in almost all the fields examined by the Eurobarometer. A significant part of this pessimism may be explained by the answers given by the participants from Greece to the question concerning their financial situation.

In this, just 20% said they were generally comfortable with their income (a meagre 1% said they were "very comfortable"), while 51% said they were experiencing "some difficulty" and 28% were experiencing " many difficulties". In comparison, 46% of all Europeans reported that they are relatively financially comfortable and 8% very comfortable, while only 9% that they face great financial difficulties.

Accordingly, 85% of Greeks said they struggle to pay their bills at least "some of the time" (with 35% struggling "most of the time") compared to 39% of the European average, of which only 9 % struggles to meet fixed...