Eastern Europe reports rising happiness and falling unemployment

The World Happiness Report shows that subjective well‑being is increasing in many Eastern European nations while it has been declining in Western Europe. Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia‑Herzegovina and Latvia have recorded notable gains in life satisfaction over the past two decades, and Kosovo, the Czech Republic and Slovenia now rank among the world’s 20 happiest countries.

Unemployment has fallen sharply in the region. Eurostat data from May indicate that the Czech Republic and Bulgaria have the lowest jobless rates in the EU at 2.9 %, followed by Cyprus and Poland at 3.1 %, well below the EU average of 5.9 %. Despite these labour‑market improvements, per‑capita GDP remains below the EU mean (EU average €41,620 in 2025; Czech Republic €31,810, the highest in the East). Purchasing power is gradually closing the gap, with the Czech Republic and Slovenia approaching Western‑European levels, while Bulgaria and Romania stay roughly 30 % lower.

Environmental factors also affect satisfaction. The European Environment Agency notes that air quality has improved overall but still exceeds EU standards at about one‑fifth of monitoring sites, especially concerning ground‑level ozone and fine‑particle pollution.