Almost half of Romanians (46%) are pleased with their lives although only 4% of them consider the national economy works well and only 14% expect the economy to improve this year, according to an Eurobarometer study published on Tuesday, quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax.

The data in the study were collected in November 2010 at national level.

The study shows the level of people's satisfaction with their lives is similar to that in autumn 2009, but improves greatly as compared to spring 2010, when the index dropped to 36%.

The EU average of people who say they're content with their lives in general is about 30% higher than that in Romania. The best percentages were reported in northern countries (over 90% in Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland). Portugal (45%) and Bulgaria (38%) are the only countries with a worse percentage than Romania.