Poland is one of the most financially vulnerable countries in Europe, a new joint report by Genworth Financial and the University of Bristol reveals.

Among fourteen European countries taken into account in the survey, only Greece and Portugal, which have been most hit by the financial crisis in the EU, are more insecure financially.

The 2010 report shows that only two percent of Polish households have a feeling of financial security, which is measured by Genworth to indicate an estimate of households’ general financial situations.

Previous editions of the report have shown that Poles are more vulnerable financially, with the 2009 and 2008 surveys revealing that 3 and 5 percent of Poles respectively feel financially secure.

Meanwhile, 36 percent of Poles negatively assess their financial situation, a 9 percent drop on 2009. The report states that “underpinning the changes in Poland is both declining optimism about households’ future financial positions […] and an increase in the number reporting being in financial difficulty ‘often or always’.”

“Poles by nature are greater pessimists,” notes Marat Nevretdinov, Managing Director of Genworth Financial for Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

“Furthermore, Poland’s economy is one of the youngest to be taken into account in the survey, which means that inflation, tax growth or unemployment hit Polish society the hardest,” Nevretdinov states.

“The poor result in the survey is reflected by objective figures that calculate personal income,” Professor Janusz Czapinski told the Rzeczpospolita daily. “As long as [Poles’] aspirations are higher than [their] financial possibilities, one cannot count on better results [in the future].” (jb)

A copy of the report can be found here.