Gallup Ranks Bulgaria among World's Most Unhappy Countries

More than a third of Bulgarians have said they consider themselves to be "happy" with life, but the country lags behind in terms of "net happiness", a Gallup International poll has showed.

The annual survey exploring attitudes, opinions and expectation of some 66 040 people in 68 countries, reveals that about 39 percent of respondents in Bulgaria describe themselves as "happy" people, with 9 percent "unhappy", 47% "in the middle" and the others finding it difficult to answer.

Gallup says net worth of happiness (the share of those who answered "Happy" minus the ones who answered "Unhappy") in Bulgaria, at 30%, is one of the world's lowest. The "Happiness Index" ranks Bulgaria as the eight "least happy country" (by net worth) after Iraq, Tunisia, Greece, Afghanistan, Palestine, Ghana, and Hong Kong.

In terms of expectations for 2016, 19% of Bulgarians said they are optimistic and 20% they are pessimistic (43% "neutral" and 18% finding it hard to say). The Southeastern European country, however, is far from being up in the "least optimistic" ranking.

Some sixty-six percent of people around the world describe themselves as "happy", four percent less than in 2014, whereas 23% say they are neither happy nor unhappy, and 10% answer "unhappy".