The rising cost of living is the most pressing worry for 93% of Europeans, according to the latest European Parliament Eurobarometer survey.

Meanwhile, support for the EU remains stable at a high level and citizens expect the EU to continue working on solutions to mitigate the effects of the crises.

In every EU Member State, more than seven in ten respondents are worried about the rising cost of living, with peak results in Greece (100%), Cyprus (99%), Italy and Portugal (both 98%). The rising prices, including for energy and food, are felt across all sociodemographic categories such as gender or age as well as all educational and socio-professional backgrounds. The second most mentioned worry with 82% is the threat of poverty and social exclusion, followed by climate change and the spread of the war in Ukraine to other countries equal in third place with 81%.

Citizens expect the EU to continue working on solutions to mitigate the compounding effects of the consecutive crises that have hit the continent. High support for the EU is based on the experience of past years, with the EU demonstrating a remarkable capacity to unite and to deploy effective measures. For now, citizens are not satisfied by the actions taken either at national or at EU level. Only a third of Europeans express satisfaction with measures taken by their national governments or the EU to tackle the rising cost of living.

Almost half of the EU population (46%) say that their standard of living has already been reduced due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis. A further 39% have not yet seen their standard of living reduced but expect this to be the case in the year to come, making for a rather grim outlook for 2023. Another telling indicator of growing economic constraints is the increase in the share of citizens facing bill-paying difficulties “most of the time” or “sometimes”, a nine-point increase from 30% to 39% since Autumn 2021.

“People are understandably worried about the rising cost of living, as more and more families are struggling to make ends meet. Now is the time for us to deliver; to bring our bills under control, push back inflation and to make our economies grow. We must protect the most vulnerable in our societies”, said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

Full results can be found here.

Background

The European Parliament’s Autumn 2022 Eurobarometer was carried out by Kantar between 12 October and 7 November in all 27 EU Member States. The survey was conducted face-to-face, with video interviews (CAVI) used additionally in Czechia and Denmark. 26.431 interviews were conducted in total. EU results were weighted according to the size of the population in each country.