The people of Puglia are the unhappiest in Italy

As for indicators of subjective well-being, they are stable or improving slightly compared to 2022 values, and the levels reached in 2019, before the pandemic emergency, have recovered, after which there has been a clear and justified decline, especially in satisfaction with leisure time.

In 2023, 68.2% of people say they are very or somewhat satisfied with their free time. The proportion of those who rate their life satisfaction between 8 and 10 years old reached an all-time high last year (46.6%), up more than three points compared to 2019 (43.2%).

On the contrary, the proportion of those who believe that their lives could get worse has decreased (12.1%) compared to 2022, but it is still about two points higher than the minimum reached in 2021.

Puglia and Sicily, with just over 25%, are the two regions with the lowest percentage of optimists, although in 2023, the proportion of people in Italy who believe their lives could improve in the next five years – 30.3% – is back. to 2019 levels, although still lower than in 2021 (31.9%), when expectations of a positive development of the health crisis led people to express a more optimistic attitude towards the future.

In the two regions there are worse than average percentages for all four indicators. The proportion of those who are satisfied with leisure time is lower (60.4% in Puglia and 62.7% in Sicily) and of those who see their situation improving (about 25% in both regions), while satisfaction with life (about 44% in both regions) is lower. .

The percentage of very satisfied people in the autonomous province of Bolzano is 63.3%, a value more than a third higher than the national average; Campania, on the other hand, came in contrast with 38.7%. The satisfaction rate with leisure time in Bolzano reaches 80.3% of citizens who are completely or somewhat satisfied.