Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarians’ biggest fears are of illness, poverty and war: Survey

Photo: pixabay

The biggest fears Bulgarians have is that they or their family members could fall ill – 43.3%, or fall into poverty – 36.7%. These fears come before war – 33.5%, which is in third position, indicate the results of a representative survey by ESTAT sociological agency conducted in February 2024. Fear of refugees stands at a mere 2%, and 2.7% say they are worried about the environment. 7.7% say they are afraid of natural calamities and disasters. ESTAT director Ivo Zhelev comments, for 24 Chasa daily, that the “top three of Bulgarians’ fears” is similar to the fears all people around the world have.

“Modern fears like terrorism, migrants, ecology, environmental pollution give way to existential fears,” he says. “Interestingly, fear of heights, of flying, of insects and animals is comparable to fear of terrorism – at around 5-6%. Fear of the future is expressed by 4.8%. The introduction of the Euro scares under 2% of Bulgarians. Very few people say they are afraid of road accidents or of the demographic crisis in the country. The popular fears of AI are not very widespread in society in Bulgaria at 0.9%, reaching 2.3% among the young. No fear of hunger exists. 0.1% say they have respect “of God”. Out of 1,008 respondents over 18 included in the survey, 6.2% say they are afraid of nothing.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Cool weather continues on Friday

On Friday , the lowest temperatures will be between 11 and 21°C. In Sofia - around 12°C. Sunny weather will prevail during the day with temporary increases in cloudiness, more significant in the afternoon. In isolated places in the..

published on 7/10/25 7:15 PM

Emergency medical assistance by air will be provided with eight helicopters

Eight helicopters, not the initially planned six, will be used to provide emergency medical assistance by air in this country, Health Minister Silvi Kirilov told journalists. Seven of them will be financed with funds from the..

published on 7/10/25 4:41 PM

Assen Vassilev: From now on PP is opposition, the government is harmful to Bulgaria

“We Continue the Change” (PP) will support votes of no confidence that do not distance us from Europe.” This is how the leader of PP, Assen Vassilev, answered a journalist's question about tomorrow's vote of no confidence in the..

published on 7/10/25 3:37 PM