Some 61% of the people in Malta believe social issues will "turn out well", according to a recent EU study that found Maltese residents having the third-highest degree of social optimism in Europe. 

Carried out by Eurofound, an EU agency, the study found that only Ireland and Denmark had a score that was higher than Malta's 0.42. Greece and France had the lowest scores. 

According to Eurofound, social optimism refers to a "general expectation that social issues will turn out well".

"In Malta, 61% of people were characterised as optimists, and 22% as pessimists, while the EU 27 average is at 43% optimists and 36% pessimists," the agency said. 

The research also identified a so-called pessimism gap, which relates to the contrast between personal and societal perceptions of the future. This equalled to 34 percentage points for the EU 27 population while it stands at eight percentage points for Malta.

"This is the second-lowest in the EU by comparison, indicating that pessimism seems more closely related to expectations about personal living conditions, and not so much based on a shared pessimistic culture concerning society’s future," the agency said. 

The research was published in the recent report titled 'Towards the future of Europe: Social factors shaping optimism and pessimism among citizens', which explores how the level of optimism differs in the member states in relation to country context pre-pandemic.

The latest report also found a strong link between trust and vaccine hesitancy, Eurofound said. Around 84% of respondents in Malta indicated in spring 2021 that they were likely to take the vaccine when it becomes available to them, compared to an EU average of 64%.

People with vaccine hesitancy, however, have a lower level of trust in numerous indices than people with no such hesitancy. Notably, trust in science is much lower among the hesitant group than among the non-hesitant group.