There are almost no differences between the sexes. Only between men and women who are older than 80 years. In this group 83 percent of the men are happy, but only 26 percent of the women. The most happiest Austrians can be found in the age between 15 and 19 (71 percent). The lowest amount of happy people is located in the age group between 30 and 39 years (59 percent).

A lot of money makes happy, is another result of the survey. People with a high salary are usually much happier than people with a low salary. Austrians who earn more than 3.600 Euro every month have a percentage of happy people of 75 percent. People who do not earn more than 900 Euro every month have a percentage of only 45 percent.

Was the life better in the past? Viennese do not agree. The most proponents in that question come from the provinces Tirol and Styria.

Another interesting fact is the result that Austrian families with children are not so happy. The percentage of happy people has the highest values if there are no children in the family (65 percent). There are only 43 percent of happy families who are living with three or more children.

The new childcare law in Austria brings shorter opening hours in kindergartens, after school care centres and toddler groups, as well as a lower quality in the pedagogic service and more pressure on parents, claim experts.

If the situation should be improved, it’s necessary that the communities put more money into the financing. Experts also demand a decrease of the minimum number of children to receive the sponsorship from the provincial government. At the moment the minimum number in a toddler group is 6. A decrease down to 4 is demanded. There should be also a basic sponsorship for all toddler groups independently from their numbers of children.

In times of the financial crisis and the coming savings package of the government, it might be doubtful to make such dreams come true. But hope is the last thing to die.

Compared to other nations, Austrians are very unhappy about their salaries. This shows a new study of the future researcher Reinhold Popp. Not even a fifth of all working Austrians is satisfied with the salary. Only 16 percent are happy with the amount of money they receive from the employer.

There is much more satisfaction with Austrias social system (42 percent), the situation of living (41 percent), health (37 percent), and job and education (32 percent).

Austrians belong to one of the citizens of the European Union with the highest income. But still it seems not to be enough for the most.

In todays issue of a Carinthian newspaper a critical article about the beach volleyball event in Klagenfurt puts oil on troubled waters. The beach volleyball tournament in Klagenfurt receives 900.000 Euro public sponsorship every year.

A bit too much for a federal state which is hopeless indebted, thinks a columnist of the newspaper. 2,5 billion Euro amounts the debt repayment status of the federal state of Carinthia.

Child benefit, kindergarten grant, and the heating costs grant was severely shortened. Savings in schools were inevitable, and the promised financial support for young people (during the last election campaign) has feet of clay. Only the beach volleyball event staid untouched. If politicans save the money which should be taken for the children, parents and the socially deprived society, also the rich and the beautiful people should be able to tighten their belts during the beachvolley ball event, is written in the newspaper.

Upper Austrias provincial Freedom party chairman Lutz Weinzinger shows himself very upset about the decided ban of foreign currency loans in Austria. The only exception are “wealthy customers”. They are still allowed to take those controversial foreign currency loans.

Weinzinger said that Austrias capital market supervisor known as “FMA” is the henchman of the banks. They are the true profiteers of this decision, he confirmed. The Freedom party man explains that credit users are forced to take expensive credits in the EURO currency now. Banks are the only winners in such a situation. They are going to earn 1,6 billion Euro more every year.

Lutz Weinzinger worries about home-builders who are most of all concerned. “A huge damage for Austrias building sector and people who wanted to create their own home”, he explained.

Calculations of the National Bank of Austria revealed the fact that Austrians are not so much motivated anymore to save a lot of money. The national saving rate decreased from 12 down to 11,2 percent in the third quartal 2009.

Less money was invested into financial assets, and this is the reason of a “slower wealth building”, explains the spokesman of the National Bank of Austria. Another interesting fact of the financial situation in Austria is the insight that Austrians prefer to make more debts. The dread of debts is decreasing rapidly among the Austrian population.

Capital transactions broke down to 50 percent. Transactions of savings balances, stocks, shares, investment share certificates and life assurances decreased from 4,1 billion Euro down to 2,3 billion Euro.

At the moment the police was able to trace 13 suspects. The pyramid scheme already runs since 2006. 160 victims were ascertained so far. The operators of the illegal business model promised them 40.000 Euro in two years, if they pay 5.000 Euro to them.

None of the participants who paid 5.000 Euro received the promised gain of 40.000 Euro. Not even the 5.000 Euro were refunded. This was reason enough to contact the police.

Many house searches followed. The police had to complete very expensive determinations. Now the first results were presented to the public. It’s quite possible that the amount of loss exceeds the sum of 2 million Euro considerably.

© Photographer: Franz Pfluegl | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Styria and Burgenland are also not one of the richest provinces in Austria. They are barely infront of Carinthia.

The richest regions of Austria are accordingly Vienna, Salzburg and Vorarlberg. The biggest increase of wealth was found in Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria and Tirol. The growth in those federal states was stronger than the average in the rest of the country.

Socialdemocrats and Peoples Party are upset about the results. They blame the BZÖ politican Jörg Haider, who is leading Carinthia, for the disastrous situation of his province.

The chairman of the BZÖ defends Haider, and talks concerning to the research about a conspiracy against Carinthia. “The research is not true. Carinthia is doing much better”, he says.

The airlines of SkyEurope and Tyrolean offer very cheap tickets to fly from Vienna to Innsbruck and back. One flight is possible for 29 EUR. By way of comparison: for the same destination one railway ticket in the second class cost 52,10 EUR.

At the moment the travel time by railway from Vienna to Innsbruck amounts 5 hours. The Austrian railway is more interested to decrease the travel time instead of the travel costs. The “ÖBB” thinks the airlines are no real competitors for the railway.

Now the oil traders and oil combines want to expand their petrol station net in those areas.

The Austrian regions which expect a real gold-rush by its petrol stations are Lake Bodensee, Tirolean Unterland, Salzburg, and the Upper Austrian provinces of Innviertel, and Mühlviertel.

Since the petrol has such a high price in Germany, the sales of some Austrian petrol stations increased up to 17 times more. “There are also petrol stations which centuplicated their sales”, confirms the secretary of the professional group of petrol stations in Salzburg.