Germans are the gloomiest people in Europe according to a major new study of the 27 nations in the European Union.

The report, released by the European Commission, confirms what many Germans had themselves long suspected –­ they are masters of moaning.

Asked if life would be better in 20 years time, just 20 per cent of Germans could bring themselves to agree. In happy-go-lucky Estonia, which topped the chart, 78 per cent of people look at the future through rose-tinted spectacles.

"Estonian citizens were the most optimistic," noted¹ the report, which polled 25,000 people across the EU. "The Germans, on the other hand, were the least optimistic ­– only one in five expected that life in Germany would improve in the long-term."

Britons were revealed as a touch more sceptical about future prospects² than the average European, 49 per cent of whom think life will be worse in 20 years.

The study focused on "quality of life" issues such as schooling³ and job prospects, age of retirement⁴ and whether people would be able to afford medical costs or even a reasonable place to live.

It found that while new members of the EU, mostly from central and eastern Europe, were mostly of the view that life would get better and better, established members of the EU were almost all miserable⁵.

Of pre-2004 EU members only the Irish and the Swedes managed to look on the bright side of life.

In fact, length of EU membership appears strongly related to a gloomy outlook. The six founder⁶ members of the EU occupy four of the five bottom spots on the future happiness chart, according the poll.

While Germans are the most mired⁷ in despair, they are closely followed by the Belgians, the Luxembourgers and the French.

在欧盟27个国家开展的一项最新大型调查显示，德国是欧洲最悲观的国家。

欧盟委员会发布的这一报告证实了长期以来人们对德国人的猜测——他们的确过于哀怨。

在被问及“是否相信20年后生活会更美好”时，仅有20％的德国人持肯定态度。而在此次调查中名列榜首的爱沙尼亚，有78%的人对未来比较乐观。

报告指出：“爱沙尼亚人最乐观，而德国人最悲观——只有五分之一的人相信明天会更好。”这份报告是对欧盟成员国的2.5万人进行调查后编撰而成的。

调查显示，与普通欧洲人相比，英国人对未来更加怀疑，有49%的人认为20年后的生活会比现在糟糕。

该调查主要围绕“生活质量”展开，涉及教育、职业前景、退休年龄、医疗支出及住房等一系列问题。

调查发现，来自中欧和东欧的欧盟新成员国大多对未来充满信心，而欧盟老成员国则普遍比较悲观。

在2004年以前加入欧盟的成员国中，只有爱尔兰人和瑞典人的生活态度比较乐观。

事实表明，一个国家加入欧盟的时间越长，其国民对未来越悲观。调查发现，排在“幸福期望”排行榜最后五位的国家中，欧盟六个创始国就占了四个。

在这四个国家中，德国人最悲观，其后依次是比利时人、卢森堡人和法国人。