⁵More in details, the survey waves employed in the present paper are the following ones. For the period 1996-1998 data come from the collection “Studies from Eastern Europe – Quality of life diagnosis in Romania”, edition 1996 (ZA3645), 1997 (ZA3646) and 1998 (ZA3647). Between 2001 and 2003 data are provided by the surveys from the series “Candidate Countries Eurobarometer Series”, edition 2001 (ZA3978), 2002 (ZA4153 and ZA3979) and 2003 (ZA3986 and ZA3983). Finally, for the other years data are available from the “Standard and Special Eurobarometer Series”, edition 2004 (ZA4229 and ZA4231), 2005 (ZA4411 and ZA4414), 2006 (ZA4506 and ZA4526), 2007 (Z4530 and ZA4565), 2008 (ZA4744 and ZA4819), 2009 (ZA4971, ZA4972 and ZA4973), 2010 (ZA5234, ZA5235 and ZA5449).