As we step into the new year, we once again conducted our survey to understand how people in the region viewed 2024 and what they expect from 2025. A year ago, we entered the new year with cautious expectations—let’s see how our predictions turned out.

Online shopping is rapidly transforming the buying habits of Central Europe, especially as the Christmas shopping season approaches: 62 percent of the population is already shopping online, with the most active buyers living in Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

CEPER’s latest study, the Fear Barometer 2024, reveals the greatest worries of Central Europe's population. The research was conducted in 12 countries across the region, with representative samples of 1,000 respondents per country.

CEPER’s recent market research survey examining interest in the upcoming Summer Olympic Games reveals diverse levels of enthusiasm across twelve European countries.The survey underscores significant variations in how different populations plan to engage with the event.

14 June marks the first day of one of the most watched sports events globally. The eagerness to see the best team rise to the top on the UEFA European Championship have already captured the imagination of Central European football fans too. According to an opinion poll conducted by CEPER, on average 60% of Central Europeans from the 10 surveyed countries responded that they are planning to pay at least some attention and follow the upcoming European Championship.

A formidable majority of respondents from 9 Central European Countries agreed that EU membership is advantageous for their country as well as for themselves personally, while they were simultaneously convinced that the EU should become more independent from the USA.

In 9 out of 12 Central European countries more respondents brace for a long war today than a year ago. While in January 2023 in neither of the studied countries did more than 46% of respondents believe that the conflict will last for the years to come, ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in January 2024 in half of the studied countries between 51 to 63% of respondents expect the war to drag on for years.

While over half of the respondents in 10 Central European countries had a pessimistic assessment of the year of 2023, 2024 is awaited with some modest optimism – in Austria, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia the majority of the respondents believe that the coming year will be good for their country.

In CEPER's recent survey spanning 12 Central European countries, encompassing Austria to North Macedonia, an absolute majority owns credit or debit cards. However, in 6 of these countries over 50% of respondents make cash payments more frequently than card payments.

Not only Western decisionmakers, but the Central European public is also divided on how to manage economic relations with China. A poll conducted by CEPER in 12 countries of the region shows that there is a clear popular support neither for strengthening nor for weakening economic ties with the People’s Republic.