Poland ranks high in global anxiety index ranking

Poland is among the top three countries with the highest level of concerns about the pandemic, ranking third behind India and Chile, shows a Tuesday-published study by the Deloitte consulting firm.

The "Global State of the Consumer Tracker" study reveals that, in Poland, the anxiety index grew from the level of -1 percent at the end of February to 13 percent in the last days of Q1 2021. According to Deloitte, this is the highest jump in anxiety, over the course of a month, among all the countries surveyed in Europe.

According to the survey, the percentage of people who admit that they are worried about the condition of their health has increased from 61 percent to 63 percent, and 79 percent of those polled in Poland are concerned about the health of loved ones.

The consulting company points out that Poles are at the forefront of countries when it comes to the highest level of concern for their own health and that of family members.

The number of respondents who are afraid of returning to work has also increased. At the beginning of March, only 18 percent of Poles were afraid of returning to the office. Meanwhile, a month later, this response was given by 31 percent of respondents. This is the highest result since November.

In terms of finances, only 16 percent of respondents have no concerns about the state of their savings, 14 percent are worried about loan repayments, but at the same time the number of people for whom debt repayment is a cause for concern has increased to 63 percent.

According to Deloitte, the increase in the level of anxiety in Poland has also had an impact on typical consumer activities.

The study shows that the number of Poles who feel safe while shopping in stationary stores has recorded a significant drop of 13 percentage points.

In addition, 43 percent of Poles are not afraid of using individual services, such as visits to the dentist or to a hairdresser (a drop of 6 percentage points).

Only 37 percent of Polish respondents would go to a restaurant (a 4 percentage points decrease) or to a mass event, such as a concert or sporting event (24 percent), without fear.

The poll was conducted at the turn of March and April.