The number of people over the age of 18 who describe themselves as happy declined in Turkey in 2020, dropping to 48.2 percent of the population from 52.4 percent the previous year, the results of a life satisfaction survey have revealed.
The survey, conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), indicated the decline the level of happiness among both women and men in 2020. In 2019, 47.6 percent of men described themselves as happy, while the figure was 57 percent among women, dropping to 43.2 percent for men and 53.1 percent for women in 2020.
According to the survey people who are married are happier than singles. In 2020, 51.7 percent of married people described themselves as happy, while this was 41.3 percent among singles. A gender-based distribution of the level of happiness among people showed that 46.7 percent of married men and 56.8 percent of married women are happy.
Happiness level among age groups
The survey revealed that people aged 65 and above make up the happiest age group, as 58.5 percent of the people in this age group described themselves as happy in 2019 and 57.7 percent did so in 2020. The lowest level of happiness was recorded among people between the ages of 55 and 64 in 2019, with 48.7 percent of people in this age group happy, while those aged between 35 and 44 had the lowest level of happiness in 2020, at 45.4 percent.
According to the survey, the happiness level was highest among the people in 2020 who did not graduate from any school, with 54.4 percent of these people describing themselves as happy. They were followed by primary school graduates at 50.3 percent, high school graduates at 46.8 percent, university graduates at 46.1 percent and middle school graduates at 44.2 percent.
Family is cited as biggest source of happiness
An examination of the sources of happiness showed that for an overwhelming majority of 69.7 percent, it was family, followed by children at 15 percent, self at 4.2 percent, parents at 3.5 percent and grandchildren at 2.2 percent.
Amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the early months of 2020, 70.9 percent of people said they were happiest about being healthy, followed by 12.8 percent who said being loved, by 8.8 percent who said being successful, by 4.6 percent who said having money and by 2.3 percent who said having a job.
Despite a decline in the level of happiness in 2020, 69.6 percent of Turks were still hopeful about the future in 2020, 68.5 percent of men and 70.7 percent of women.