Flash Eurobarometer 481: The euro area

For this survey carried out on 14- 19 October 2018, some 17 500 respondents across the 19 euro area countries were interviewed by phone.
Compared with last year, the results confirm the strong support for the euro. A euro area majority of 65% thinks that having the euro is a good thing for their country. This is for the third consecutive year the highest proportion since the start of the survey in 2002. It is the view of the majority of respondents in all 19 euro area countries. There are nevertheless some important differences between the 19 countries.
The highest increase in support compared with the 2018 results was noted in Cyprus with a raise of 8 percentage points to 55%, followed by Lithuania with a raise of 7 points to 49% and Greece with 6 percentage points to 66%. Highest support for the euro remains to be in Ireland at 88%.
An equally stable euro area majority of 76% sees the euro as good for the EU as a whole, a raise of 2 percentage points compared to 2018.
Asked about economic policy coordination in the euro area, an overall majority of 69% thinks there should be more coordination while 7% think there should be less of it.
A stable overall majority of 65% supports abolishing 1-cent and 2-cent coins combined with mandatory rounding of the final sum of purchases. However, majorities in Greece (48%) and Latvia (48%) are the lowest for this proposal, while in 16 euro area Member States an absolute majority supports this idea.
Citizens replied to a set of questions focusing on issues ranging from perception and practical aspects of the euro to their assessment of the economic situation, policy and reforms in their country and in the euro area. In addition, citizens were asked about their views and expectations regarding household income and inflation.

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics

Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer