Two-digit inflation makes life bitter for many families and places the government of the day closer to electoral defeat. Even though the battery of palliative measures is very wide and varied. The curious thing about the Spanish case is that the surveys (at least those carried out by the CIS) do not reflect a direct impact of the cost of living in the field of individual perceptions of the standard of living. There is not even a significant decrease in the emotional well-being of citizens as a result of economic difficulties.
Of course, the problems of the economy have become one of the three main concerns cited by up to 40% of Spaniards (and by more than 43% when asked about the problem that most affects them personally). Unemployment, which was almost always in the lead until the pandemic, has fallen to third place among personal concerns, according to the CIS.
It is also true that less than 20% of those consulted place inflation as the main problem, although the rate is close to 25% if the question is about the first personal concern. However, it does not seem that the difficult economic circumstances resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the persistent drought affect personal happiness or even individual satisfaction with the respective standard of living. In fact, the average note that registers the happiness of the Spaniards has grown almost one point in the last eight years. And the satisfaction with the standard of living of each citizen has also grown, around half a point since 2017.
The figures are eloquent. While in 2014 the happiness index fell to point seven on a scale of 0 (completely unhappy) to 10 (completely happy), in 2022 it is close to eight. Not even the outbreak of the pandemic, in March 2020, affected the happiness of the Spanish, whose indicator grew one tenth compared to 2019 (and four compared to the 2018 note). The happiest citizens – with a note above eight – are the voters of the Popular Party, followed just two tenths by those of Vox.
Now, an indicator as direct as satisfaction with the standard of living of each citizen should reflect some kind of negative impact on the perceptions of citizens due to inflation. However, the 2022 indicator remains at the same level as that of 2020 and just five hundredths below that of 2021. In fact, the score for the current year is clearly above that of 2018 or 2019. The most satisfied voters with their standard of living are those of the PP, and the least satisfied (but only three tenths lower) are those of Vox.
Thus, it seems that the Spanish live in a world of opulence and that the cost of living affects them only moderately. After all, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, each citizen throws an average of 30 kilos of food into the garbage every year. And the indicators segregated by subjective identification of class or occupation do not show great changes in recent years in satisfaction with the respective standard of living. But yes, food waste is concentrated in three out of four Spanish households and the impact of inflation on the poorest 10% of the population is blurred by the fact that this group always scores well below the average in the chapter of satisfaction with their economic situation.
