Life satisfaction up for first time in five years

(ANSA) - Rome, November 22 - Overall life satisfaction among Italians has risen in 2016 for the first time in five years, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday.
    Some 41% of Italians aged 14 and above gave a high rating this year compared to 35.1% in 2015, the institute added. The percentage of Italians that are satisfied with their economic situation has also risen, from 47.5% in 2015 to 50.5% this year. The level of job satisfaction has likewise grown slightly, while satisfaction with personal and family relationships, heath condition and free time are unchanged.
    Criminality remains the biggest concern for families in 2016, followed by air pollution, traffic and parking problems, ISTAT said.
    However, the percentage of Italians who say they are worried about crime has dropped to 38,9% from the record high of 41.1% registered last year.
    Pollution was said to be of concern to 38% of families, traffic to 37.9% and parking to 37.2%. Other lesser preoccupations for Italian families were dirty streets (33%), poor public transport connections (32.9%) and noise pollution (31.5%).
    The drop in fear of crime is accompanied by a parallel drop in the fear of others, ISTAT said.
    Some 78.1% of Italians believe they "need to be very wary" of others, compared to 78.6% last year. Conversely, 19.7% of Italian now think most people are worthy of trust, compared to 19.9% last year. However, the level of trust varies considerably according to geographical region, with the lowest percentage (16.5%) registered in the South and higher percentages registered in the Centre (20.8%) and North (21.7%). The percentage of people who think a neighbour would be likely to return a lost wallet has risen to 69.8% from 69.4% in 2015, while 12.1% said they would expect similar treatment from a stranger, up 1% from last year.
    More people than that, 82.4%, said they would trust the police to return the wallet.