The findings of the traditional survey that has been conducted for the last five years just before the New Year shows that optimism is returning, with the share of those who expect progress exceeding 50%. Five years ago, only 30% of respondents expected that the situation in the country would change for the better.
According to last year's survey, 25% of Slovenians were extremely pessimistic about personal prospects ahead of the New Year as against only 4% this year.
Delo said that optimism "is again taking root" after a long period of crisis which some sociologists describe as a lost decade. It noted, however, that the number of those who believe that Slovenia is stagnating or going backwards is still bigger than the number of those who think that it is making progress.