Every second (51%) citizen of the world believes that his life is better than that of his parents.

The other half of those asked are equally divided between those who rate their life as worse (23%) and those who think it is the same (23%).

3% cannot answer.

Satisfaction with standard of living is a key factor in people's belief that they have a better life than their parents.

But in some rich regions, such as Europe, this is not true to such an extent.

The life expectancy of today's children is mostly good, but still less favorable when compared to the life expectancy of previous generations - 44% expect a better life for children today compared to ours, 28% expect a worse one life, 20% expect the same quality of life, and 8% cannot answer.

Older people are less confident about a better future for the next generation.

Having more money, unsurprisingly, also gives more confidence in the future – on an individual level.

But at the national level it is different - the countries that are experiencing or have experienced difficulties are actually the ones that believe more strongly in the better future of the next generation.

Again no surprise.

This is the picture of a special study conducted by the world Association "Gallup International" in 64 countries of the world, which covers more than two-thirds of the global population (and more than 90% of the countries where public opinion research can be conducted and published).

The survey marks the 75th anniversary of the Gallup International Association.

When asked whether they generally have a better, worse or more similar life compared to their parents, globally 51% say their life is better, 23% worse, 23 % say their lives are generally the same as their parents', and 3% cannot give an answer.

That's nearly a 30 percentage point difference between positive and negative views of the future.

Gallup: 44% of Bulgarians believe that 2023 will be even worse

The most positive country among the 64 countries surveyed is Vietnam - 83% choose the answer "better life" and 4% indicate that their life is worse than that of their parents, which makes a difference of 79 points.

The attitudes are most negative in Moldova (32% "better" life, but also 45% - "worse", which forms a negative difference of -13).

Not at the level of regions, in terms of differences between positive and negative attitudes to life compared to the past, the trends are most positive in East Asia/Oceania (58% "better", 13% "worse" or 45 points difference), followed by North America (58% "better", 17% "worse"), Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (56% "better", 24% "worse" and 60% " better', 28% 'worse' - equal differences, despite the difference in shares).

This is followed by Latin America (47% "better", 19% "worse"), Europe (49% "better", 22% "worse" with almost identical differences of 27 and 26 points for EU and non-EU countries) and the Middle East-North Africa (47% "better", 25% "worse").

West Asia, represented here by Afghanistan, stands out by just 1 point difference (40% "better", 39% "worse").

Among the countries where the World Association had the opportunity to conduct a survey, in order according to the difference between answers "better" and "worse" life, the most pronounced positive results were reported in Nigeria (81% "better" against 9 % "worse"), in the USA (60% "better", 15% "worse"), Mexico (57% "better", 16% "worse"), Russia (48 %'better', 12% 'worse') and India (54% 'better', 30% 'worse').

As expected, results vary among different social groups according to indicators such as household income, education, etc.

For example, the groups with the lowest household incomes show more positive attitudes, but they are not distinguished by a particular size of the shares of positivity (42% "better", 29% "worse" or a difference of 13 points), compared to the groups with the highest standard of living (62% "better", 16% "worse").

The most educated respondents are also more positive (33 points difference) than those with less education (16 points difference).

Despite this general pattern, the results are also nation-specific, dependent on diverse historical contexts.

When asked about the lives of today's children compared to our own, opinions around the world are generally more subdued in their positivity, with 44% expecting a better life for children today.

28% are those who expect a worse life for the coming generation, 20% think that the life of children today will be the same as ours and 8% cannot judge.

Thus, worldwide the difference between positive and negative expectations for children's lives today is 16 points.

However, and in view of all the challenges we face (war, inflation, pandemics, climate change), this level of positive expectations is rather a pleasant surprise.

The older the respondents, the less confident they are in the favorable outlook for children today.

For example, in the age group 55+ the structure of the answers is as follows: 39% "better life" minus 31% answers "worse life" and a relatively small positive difference - compared to the significant positive difference of 22 points (48% vs. 26%) among the under-35 group. Because of differences and problems in intergenerational dialogue, worries about the world tomorrow or whatever, there seems to be a gap between past and future in the attitudes of older generations.

Wealthier people also appear more confident about the future they can provide for their children (a 24-point gap among the highest-income demographics) than the poor (11 points in the lowest-income demographics).

But on the other hand, developing countries are the ones with more hope - not the richest countries (although this is not without exceptions, of course).

Apparently, the positive trend of development is more important than the presence of a certain standard.

This is probably why expectations for the future are highest (measured by the difference between positive and negative expectations) in non-EU European countries and sub-Saharan Africa (both with differences of 32 points: 54% "better", 22% "worse ' for non-EU European countries; 59% 'better', 27% 'worse' for Sub-Saharan Africa),

The most positive country among those surveyed is Nigeria (90% minus 6%), and the most negative is Slovenia (14% minus 53%).

Among the large countries in which the world association conducted research, expectations for the future of children are highest (after Nigeria) in Russia (52% minus 10%), Mexico (48% minus 30%), the United States (43% minus 31% ) and India (43% minus 33%).

Combining the two questions provides another perspective.

For example, Moldova shows a total of 86 points (45% saying their life is worse than that of their parents plus 41% expecting a worse life for today's children), followed in this negative ranking by North Macedonia (82: 35% negative ratings plus 47% negative forecasts), Afghanistan (81), Syria and Italy (78), etc.

This is the most negatively disposed countries in combination according to both criteria.

Most of the countries are still positive on both questions, but if you look for, for example, countries with over 50% positive responses on both questions, Nigeria stands out with 171 points (81% positive today plus 90% positive expectations for tomorrow), followed by Kosovo (162), United Arab Emirates (150), Ghana (141), Pakistan (134) and others.

These are the most positively disposed countries in combination on both issues.

Thus, the combination of the two questions proves once again the finding: developing parts of the world share more hope than developed ones.

National and political idiosyncrasies make their mark, but in general it seems that the closer the war and the troubles, the worse the answers on both questions – as might be expected.

The most positive country among those surveyed is Nigeria (90% minus 6%), and the most negative is Slovenia (14% minus 53%).

Among the large countries in which the world association conducted research, expectations for the future of children are highest (after Nigeria) in Russia (52% minus 10%), Mexico (48% minus 30%), the United States (43% minus 31% ) and India (43% minus 33%).

Combining the two questions provides another perspective.

For example, Moldova shows a total of 86 points (45% saying their life is worse than that of their parents plus 41% expecting a worse life for today's children), followed in this negative ranking by North Macedonia (82: 35% negative ratings plus 47% negative forecasts), Afghanistan (81), Syria and Italy (78), etc.

This is the most negatively disposed countries in combination according to both criteria.

Most of the countries are still positive on both questions, but if you look for, for example, countries with over 50% positive responses on both questions, Nigeria stands out with 171 points (81% positive today plus 90% positive expectations for tomorrow), followed by Kosovo (162), United Arab Emirates (150), Ghana (141), Pakistan (134) and others.

These are the most positively disposed countries in combination on both issues.

Thus, the combination of the two questions proves once again the finding: developing parts of the world share more hope than developed ones.

National and political idiosyncrasies make their mark, but in general it seems that the closer the war and the troubles, the worse the answers on both questions – as might be expected.

Kancho Stoychev, president of the world association "Gallup International": "The widespread modern belief assumes that we will live better than the previous generation and that the next one will live better than us.

But imagine the opposite: that we live worse than our parents and, moreover, our children will have a life worse than ours.

This means two generations with a reduced quality of life.

And while such majority sentiment seems relatively easy to explain for countries like Afghanistan, Moldova, North Macedonia and Syria, for France and Italy it is a real challenge to explain.

But despite the significant difference in the explanations, what is common in both cases is the feeling of a life crisis.

That's why it seems

where are we

Bulgarians clearly look at the past with nostalgia, but also with hope, albeit timidly, at the future.

It is clearly the poor evaluation of the present that determines both.

The expected negativity among Bulgarians can be seen in the attitudes towards life today compared to those in the past.

The gap between those who feel they lead a better life than their parents' generation (35%) and those who feel their lives are worse than their parents' (31%) is positive: 4 points .

But against the background of the world and even our not particularly enthusiastic Europe, these 4 points are few.

Close to our country are the assessments of life today in Moldova, France and Italy, which also do not show an enviable picture.

Our neighbors from North Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Serbia seem more positive towards life today.

For 27% of the Bulgarians asked, there is no difference between their lives and that of the previous generation.

7% in our country cannot judge whether our life now is better than that of our parents.

As for the life expectations of the new generations in our country, the attitudes are more positive - as in most countries of the world that evaluate their present or past badly.

A peculiarity in our country is that the attitudes about the future of children seem (albeit minimally) more positive than the attitudes about the quality of our life now, compared to that of previous generations.

In our country, 37% expect the life of today's children to be better than theirs, 29% see more difficulties in the lives of today's children, and 20% believe that the generation after us will have the same life as ours.

14% cannot judge.

Thus, the difference between those who are positive and negative about the future of children today is 8 points in favor of those who expect a better life for the generation after us.

According to this indicator, our country is approaching the average positions in a kind of ranking of positive and negative attitudes about life tomorrow, although it still remains at the bottom.

Expectedly, attitudes in Northern Macedonia and other Eastern and Central European countries are close to the attitudes in Bulgaria.

Countries from Western Europe such as France, Germany, Italy, etc. are much more pessimistic about the future of children today.

Sample size and registration method:

A total of 60,724 people were interviewed globally.

In each country, around 1,000 people were interviewed face-to-face, by phone or online between August and October 2022.

There are 64 countries participating in the study.

The statistical error in the study is in the range of ±3-5% with a confidence interval of 95%.