Italians may be getting vainer and more stressed as we mentioned in the previous story, but, in the end, three out of four are happy to live in Italy, according to a new study.
In its Italy 2006 report, the socio-economic research group Eurispes found that not only are more than 75% of Italians happy to live in Italy, but 67% consider themselves to be here. However, Eurispes also found that the percentage of Italians happy to live in Italy diminished as their level of education rose.
From a political point of view, the Italians who consider themselves to be centrists were the happiest to live here, followed by those leaning to the the right and center-right, while Italians on who vote left and center-left were the most critical of conditions in their own country.
Housewives and students were the categories which Eurispes said were the happiest to live in Italy, followed respectively by self-employed professionals, merchants and retirees.
The most unhappy were blue-collar workers and the unemployed, Eurispes said.
When asked what made them happy to live in Italy, one third of those polled replied the country's natural beauty, 31% said the freedom of opinion and 28.9% indicated Italy's artistic-cultural tradition.
The favorable climate was the choice of 16.7% of those interviewed, 15.8% said economic well-being and 14.3% admitted it was the food. Although Italians may be happy to be where they are, 37.8% of those interviewed said they would be willing to move abroad and among these there were more women than men and more younger people.
Spain was the country seen as the best alternative to living in Italy, followed by France and Britain.
