New figures released by the EU statistics agency rank Austria as the happiest country in the 27-member bloc.
Austria scored a total score of 7.9 points out of 10 in Eurostat's annual publication on "quality of life indicators", which is based on surveys conducted across member states.
Poland, Finland and Romania were jointly ranked second in the data with all scores of 7.7 out of 10, while at the other end of the scale, Bulgaria had the lowest score, as the only country to score less than six (5.6) in total on the life satisfaction index.
Eurostat said its publication aims to "capture trends in the subjective well-being of European citizens", noting that "EU citizens tended to be quite satisfied with their lives overall, reporting an average of 7.1 points out of 10".
Factors such as education level, family and financial stability affected respondents' overall satisfaction with their lives, and not simply with wealth.
"It is interesting to note that some countries associated with low income levels in the recent past... "Romania and Poland are among the countries where life satisfaction is highest – showing the complexity of the relationship between subjective well-being and economic well-being," eurostat said.
Italy, Spain and France, three of the largest economies in the EU, all move around the 7.1 average for the continent.
However, Germany was found to be one of the most dissatisfied countries in the survey, beating only Bulgaria, with a score of 6.5. Germany scored 7.1 points in last year's figures for 2021.
While the study does not show the cause behind a Germany's overall life satisfaction drop, the result appears in line with other surveys that reflect a drop in mood of the country's residents.