P8 Survey 2022 "What Makes Austria Tick?"

Austria, 11.01.2022 - P8 Marketing has interviewed more than 1,400 Austrians in the period from December 15, 2021 to January 2, 2022 in the online survey "What makes Austria tick?". Core topics of the survey are happiness factors & planned investments in 2022, purchase decision criteria & changed shopping habits, assessment of economic development as well as communication behavior and popular media.

Happiness barometer at peak, health & well-being more important than ever

The happiness barometer is on the rise again after bottoming out last year: At the beginning of 2021, one in three people was "unhappy" to "very unhappy." The current survey shows that meanwhile "only" one in ten is "unhappy" (4.87%) to "very unhappy" (7.76%). Compared to the mood of January 2021 (2.8) and July 2021 (3.2), the highest value of 3.4 out of 5 possible mood points is reached.

The happiness factors remain unchanged. Values such as health (90.54%), no money worries (70.92%), an intact family (65.91%), partnership (55.96%), friends (55.75%), and a nice home (49.33%) count. Good looks (16.87%) and styling awareness (weakened by crisis in 32%) do not take great importance in the new everyday life. "Inner values have finally manifested themselves. The importance of family, friends, health and well-being will also be the sustainable mega trend this year," analyzes P8 CEO Georg Hofherr.

Conscious Investments Planned, Quality & Top Price Performance Crucial

Online shopping continues to boom: in the meantime, almost 44% already store online more often (cf. July 2021 38.42%). For around 29%, regional products are particularly important when shopping, and for one in five (20.18%), shopping behavior is unchanged.

In the new year, meaningful investments and savings also play a major role. Just under 28% pay more attention to price and offers. This figure has almost doubled since last year. Planned spending also reflects this awareness: around 39% plan to invest your money this year; in 2021, this was only important for 14% of respondents. Other relevant areas include travel (53.16%), leisure activities (42.36%), nutrition (40.16%) and health (39.02%).

Purchase decision criteria for products are, in particular, a good price/performance ratio (36.58%) and quality (34.51%). However, environmental protection and resource consumption is also a decisive factor for just under one in five. "This shows that it is impossible to imagine our society without the issues surrounding climate protection and ecology," says Hofherr.

Majority in Favor of Mandatory Vaccination, Inflation Suspected

In January 2021, 9 out of 10 respondents still expected a "very negative" or "negative" economic development. The current assessment of the respondents on the medium-term economic development after the Corona crisis shows that optimism now prevails again. Although around 42% expect a negative development, just under 32% are convinced that the economy will remain at this level and one in five expects a positive economic trend.

Assessments of the Covid-19 vaccination also show an upward trend: Nearly 69% are positive about Covid-19 vaccination, about 20% have a neutral stance and 12% are negative about vaccination.

Opinions on mandatory vaccination still differ somewhat, but still show that over half (54.14%) are in favor of the planned Covid-19 mandatory vaccination in Austria. Around 27% are against it, and one in five (18.67%) have not yet formed an opinion.

Due to the high national debt, 75% now suspect that inflation may occur. In July 2021, 65% already assumed demonetization. "Over 3⁄4 of the population is worried about their money. Contrary to all official assurances, people feel that inflation will keep us busy for a long time," said Georg Hofherr

Online Media Popular News Channel, Daily Newspapers With High Credibility

Austrians' favorite "news" channels include social networks (3.59 out of 5 points), online media (3.43 out of 5 points), messenger services (3.33 out of 5 points) and television (3.32 out of 5 points). However, radio (67.24%) and daily newspapers (print) (37.4%) are also regularly consumed daily to weekly for news. This is also reflected in the assessment of which media will gain in importance for respondents in 2022: More than half (53.29%) expect this to be the case for online media, around 45% for social networks and just under 35% for messenger services.

However, when it comes to trust, radio (2.85 out of 5 points), daily newspapers (print) (2.74 out of 5 points), online media (2.68 out of 5 points) and weekly and monthly newspapers (2.65 out of 5 points) in particular enjoy high credibility. "It shows that quality journalism, regardless of the channel, continues to be the ideal environment for the advertising industry. Advertising can only work in a trustworthy environment," said the marketing expert.

The survey was conducted online from December 15, 2021 to January 02, 2022. A total of more than 1,400 people from all regions and age groups in Austria took part. The detailed results can be found here: