Economic Crisis and Self-Evaluation of Economic Security in the EU

In this study the effects of the recent global economic crisis on the self-evaluation of economic security of the EU population were examined, by a statistical elaboration of the European Quality of Life Survey database. When looking at the differences between the EU member countries, in terms of the self-evaluation of ability to satisfy one’s own needs, the economic crisis has left the greatest negative effect in Greece and Slovakia; in terms of self-evaluation of job security, the greatest effect was in Greece and Cyprus. The data make it possible for the states to be ranked by average self-evaluation of economic security of their populations, and by the share of the population that can be classified as economically insecure – in 2007 before the outbreak of the economic crisis and five years later. Also, the data from 2012 show that the self-evaluation of economic security is, on a country-level, positively correlated with GDP per capita, Human Development Index and Corruption Perception Index, and negatively correlated with the Gini coefficient; on an individual level, the economic security is positively correlated with the feeling of happiness, subjective general health, the mental well-being, the level of education, the satisfaction with social life and negatively correlated with the feeling of social exclusion. Finally, the self-evaluation of job security was evidenced to be a better predictor of job satisfaction than the evaluation of ability to satisfy one’s own needs