Bulgarians' opinion: Despite the crisis, the Greeks still live better than us

82% of adult Bulgarian citizens are of the opinion that the residents of Greece live better than us, even in times of a severe crisis. This data was revealed in a comparative nationally representative survey by BBSS Gallup International on the subject, conducted in early October on behalf of Klassa.bg.

The Bulgarian society is still characterised by relatively low national self-esteem, compared to other Balkan countries. Over half of Bulgarians believe that the people in Greece, Turkey and Serbia live better than us.

Greece and Turkey are the countries to which we feel the greatest inferiority complex - over 80% of the respondents in Bulgaria say that we live worse than the Greeks and the Turks.

The views of Bulgarians on life in Greece were relatively stable, compared to 2008, despite the crisis and the risk of our neighbour failing and being excluded from the Eurozone. Only 3% of Bulgarians believe that the Greeks live worse than us, while 4% were of the opinion that the Bulgarians and the Greeks have relatively similar lives.

As regards the comparison of Bulgarians with the inhabitants of Turkey, there is a substantial rise in the share of Bulgarians who think that the Turks live better than us - from 72% in 2008 to 84% in 2012.

The shared experience of Bulgaria and Romania during the accession and entry into the European Union seems to have contributed to the fact that we see the Romanians as much closer to us.

In 2008, 72% of Bulgarians felt that the living standards and lifestyle of the Romanians are better than ours. Today, the percentage is significantly lower - 53%. However, there is an increasing share of Bulgarians who believe that Bulgarians and Romanians live in a relatively similar way. A quarter of Bulgarians evaluated the living standard of Romanians as similar to that of Bulgarians.

The data for the evaluation of the Bulgarian standard of living compared to that of the average Serb is unchanged from the level measured in 2008. 51% of the respondents believe that the Serbs live better than the Bulgarians and about one-fifth are of the opinion that there is little difference between the standard of life at home and in Serbia.

Over a third of Bulgarians said that the Macedonians live better than us and 22% described the way of life in Albania as better than ours.

In fact, the Bulgarians exhibited some degree of confidence in terms of their standard of living when compared only to Albania - 23% of the respondents believe that Bulgarians live better than the average Albanian.

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