Survey: Romania’s young more confident about personal future than country’s

The young in Romania tend to be confident about their own future but less so about that of their country, a survey done by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation showed. The survey was carried out on a representative sample of respondents aged 14 to 29.

The difference in perspective is due to the ease of emigration, which for most respondents is a good option for the future, if their life in Romania doesn’t provide the expected results, the survey shows.

Approximately 30% of the respondents said they would like to leave Romania for at least six months, the survey revealed. The percentage is relatively low compared to the region, and a decrease against 2014, when almost 60% of the Romanian youth were thinking about emigrating. The plan to leave is connected to poverty and lack of access to consumption goods. The young emigrants come from the society’s poorest, while the older ones tend to be people looking for a job or leaving the country for education. Most emigrants would like to remain in the EU, especially in Germany and Great Britain.

The respondents with high educational aspirations also reported a fear of corruption. Some two thirds of those planning to enroll in tertiary education report being very afraid of corruption, compared to 40% of those interested only in lower secondary or professional education.

When it comes to family, almost a quarter of those surveyed said they did not know how many children they want to have. While the young coming from smaller localities saw having a family as a first step towards welfare and prosperity, those from larger cities postpone marriage to a later date, until after finishing their studies and finding a well-paid job. At the same time, some 20% of the respondents said they did not know what contraception was or that they did not use it.

The survey also revealed that over a third of the Romanian youth have a full time work contract on an indefinite period of time or a partial time work contract (42.9%). A third of them do not have a job and do not plan on finding one. Most work contracts on an indefinite period of time are found in the region of Transylvania.

Over a third of the working youth are not employed in the job they trained for, the trend being higher among men. The young living in Bucharest and Wallachia tend to view relationships and acquaintances as being more important than those living in Transylvania or Moldavia.

Moreover, a third of those surveyed said they spent more than 4 hours in front of the TV set. The percentage is significantly higher compared to the 2014 edition of the survey, when only 10% said they did this. More than half of those surveyed use the internet for more than 4 hours a day, while only 7.6% take part in volunteering activities and 12% in activities organized by youth centers.