Four out of five Spaniards feel economy is “same” or “worse”

Spaniards’ concern about corruption has dropped seven percentage points in a month, but people are increasingly worried about the economy and the consequences of austerity cuts.

The latest survey by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) shows that despite recent macroeconomic figures suggesting a recovery, over half of the Spanish population still believes that the country’s economic situation will not improve in 2016, compared with 28% who feel it will.

The results of the February poll, which were released on Wednesday, show that four out of every five citizens – 81.3% compared with 84% in January – believe that the economy is in “the same” or even “worse” shape right now than it was a year ago.

After unemployment, corruption is the second-biggest cause for concern among Spaniards: 78.6% of respondents mentioned joblessness as a major worry, compared with 79.4% a month before, while 48.5% mentioned corruption, against 55.5% in January.

CIS canvassers conducted the survey between February 2 and 11, a period that – unlike other months – did not feature any major corruption cases.

Concerns over the health system grew two points (from 10.2% to 12.1%) to become the fifth-biggest problem for Spaniards, and education ranked sixth after rising from 7.1% to 9.5%. Respondents also expressed worry over budget cuts.

A third of Spaniards getting less sleep

Three out of four Spaniards go to bed after 11pm on weekdays, and two out of five do so after midnight, according to the CIS poll. At the same time, nearly three out of five reported getting up before 8am.

Half of those surveyed said they were sleeping the same amount of hours as they did five years ago, but 35.5% said they were getting less sleep now.

The poll also found that seven out of 10 Spaniards are non-smokers, while over half do sports several times a week. Nearly a quarter of the population (23.7%) see themselves as being in reasonable health, while 58.4% rated their health as good, 13% very good, and 4.9% as bad or very bad. Nearly 30% of the population exercises on a daily basis, nearly the same proportion who never or nearly never do.