The last three years seem to have diminished the enthusiasm of the Bulgarians, and perhaps their dreams. Probably because of the constraints in which we lived, now there are not so many who promise themselves more discipline in the year that has begun. Many promise themselves to spend less, but three years ago there were more savers. Perhaps against the backdrop of inflation, promising to spend less is beginning to sound increasingly unrealistic.
The hypotheses come from a January independent poll by Gallup International Balkan, in which the agency examined what Bulgarians are promising themselves on the verge of 2023, asking for the second time the questions it asked three years ago. The data from the 2020 survey can be viewed HERE
73.6 per cent have now promised themselves that they will say “I love you” more often as the year begins, 10.3 per cent would rather not, and the rest are hesitant in their answer. It appears that on the cusp of 2020, romance was in much the same ballpark.
89.8% of Bulgarians say they will spend more time with their loved ones in 2023. 5.6% rather do not intend to do so, and the rest are hesitant. Regardless of who they will spend more time with – 81.8% promise themselves more smiles and this is almost as much as three years ago. Younger respondents were more likely to promise themselves smiles and romance.
Expectations for dreams to come true are a bit more timid compared to the beginning of 2020 – 68.5% promise themselves at least one dream to come true on the threshold of 2023, and 73.1% were ready for dreams to come true 3 years ago. The crisis times in our country seem to also shake the confidence in the future and in ourselves.
61.2 will limit – at least in words – their bad habits, while in 2020, 69.2 percent of those who participated in the survey were ready to impose self-discipline. Restrictions, it turns out, are more inherent in people of more mature age and higher educational status. Regardless of whether they rank spending among their bad habits, 47.7 percent vowed to spend less than usual. Three years ago, however, they were a few points more. It appears that now, post-Covid, it’s clearly time not for self-discipline, but the opposite. And self-discipline in spending may be more of a utopia.
In a charitable initiative, 51.1 percent said they would participate, and 56.2 percent said they would plant a tree. On both pledges in 2020, people in this country were much more enthusiastic – by more than 10 points. The decrease in enthusiasm to be useful to society is probably also part of the sense of permanent crisis in our country.
It is noteworthy that there is also not much enthusiasm for adopting a stray animal, 29 per cent promise this, and for reading a book, 44.5 per cent. On both these, pragmatism also seems to be growing to some extent.
The survey was conducted face-to-face with tablets between 12 and 20 January 2023 among 808 Bulgarian adults. The sample is representative of the adult population of the country. The absolute maximum margin of error is ±3.5% at 50% proportions. 1% of the total sample equals about 54 thousand people.