Wellbeing, Slovenia, 2013

In 2013, the Survey on Living Conditions (SILC) included an ad hoc module with which we measured subjective wellbeing of persons aged 16 and over. In the majority of questions persons evaluated or appraised the wellbeing on the scale from 0 – Not at all satisfied to 10 - Completely satisfied. In some questions the scale was different and this is specially stated.

The young, better educated and those with higher incomes generally more satisfied with their lives

In 2013, 65% of people assessed their life taken as a whole with assessment from 7 to 10, and 8% with the lowest assessment, from 0 to 4. Average assessment of overall life satisfaction was 7.0. Higher self-assessment of their satisfaction with life taken as a whole was given by pupils, students (7.9), young people aged 16-25 years (7.7) and those with tertiary education (7.7). Higher income has an important impact on higher satisfaction; those with the highest incomes, on average, assessed their overall life satisfaction with a score of 7.7, those with the lowest incomes with a score (6.3).

Fairly satisfied with the financial situation of their households

Most people, one third, assessed the financial situation of their households with assessment 5 and 6 (34%). Higher assessments were given by those with higher incomes (7.1), and much worse by those with the lowest incomes (4.1). As regards the economic status, the least satisfied with the financial situation were unemployed persons (4.0).

Trust in social systems low

In 2013, people assessed trust in the political system by an average assessment of 5.5 (on the scale from 0 - Not trust at all to 10 - Complete trust). 25% of people assessed trust in the political system with assessment from 7 to 10, 35% with assessment 5 and 6, and 38% with the lowest assessment (from 0 to 4).
Even lower was the average assessment of trust in the legal system (2.7); only 7% of people assessed trust in the legal system with assessments from 7 to 10.
People assessed trust in the political system the worst, by an average assessment of 1.8. 83% of people evaluated trust in the political system with the lowest assessments from 0 to 4, and only 4% of people with assessments 7 to 10. It should be noted that the majority of the responses was obtained in the course of political instability between February and April 2013. These questions are of general nature and refer to the respondent’s opinion/feeling. Therefore, such answers can be very dependent on the current social climate, which can change rapidly.

Most of the people satisfied with personal relationships

The average self-assessment of satisfaction with personal relationships with relatives, friends, colleagues at work, etc., was 8.3, which is the highest assessment of all measurements of satisfaction in this survey. 87% of people assessed satisfaction with personal relationships with assessment from 7 to 10. As expected, the most satisfied with personal relationships were pupils and students (8.7), and worse those who were materially deprived (7.7).

In general, people feel safe in the neighbourhood where they live

96% of people felt very safe or fairly safe close to the place of residence (where they usually shop, go for a walk, etc.). Those who live in densely populated areas felt slightly less safe; 44% of them felt very safe, while the shares for those in intermediate areas and in thinly-populated areas were 55% and 54%, respectively. Even after dark the feeling of physical security was very high (90% of people felt very safe or fairly safe). At night or after dark the share of women who felt a bit unsafe or very unsafe was higher than the share of men; 14% of women felt a bit unsafe or very unsafe, while the share for men was only 5%.

The detailed data on wellbeing are published in the attachment, including the data for cohesion and statistical regions.