The Standard Eurobarometer 88 survey was carried out between 5 and 19 November 2017 in 34 countries or territories: the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU), the five candidate countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania), and the Turkish Cypriot community in the part of the country not controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus. The Autumn 2017 Standard Eurobarometer survey was conducted shortly after the European Commission published the economic forecasts for autumn 2017. It was then forecast that by 2018, GDP growth will reach 2.1% in the EU (-0.2 percentage points since 2017) and 2.1% in the euro area (-0.1). If this forecast is confirmed, it will be the first time since 2010 that GDP growth will be the same in the euro area and in the EU as a whole. In comparison, GDP growth forecasts for 2018 are 2.3% in the United States, 1.2% in Japan, 6.5% in China and 3.7% worldwide. The unemployment rate continued to decline: at 7.5% in the EU as a whole (compared with 8.4% in September 2016, a decrease of -0.9 percentage points) and 8.9% within the euro area (compared with 9.9% in September 2016, -1), the unemployment rate in September 2017 was at its lowest since January 2009. Since the spring 2017 Standard Eurobarometer survey, the EU has been hit by a number of terrorist attacks. On 3 June 2017, an attack took place on London Bridge and at Borough Market, causing eight deaths and 48 injuries. On 28 July, one person was killed and six others were injured in Hamburg, Germany. Spain was hit in Cambrils and in Barcelona on 17 and 18 August 2017, leaving 14 dead and hundreds wounded. On 18 August 2017, two people were killed and six injured in Turku, Finland. On 1 October 2017, a man killed two people at the Saint-Charles railway station in Marseille, France. National elections have been held in Malta, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. In Slovenia, the first round of presidential elections took place on 22 October 20174. In France, the election of Emmanuel Macron as President of the Republic on 7 May 2017 was followed by his party’s victory in the June parliamentary elections. In the United Kingdom, parliamentary elections were held on 8 June 2017. Theresa May remained Prime Minister, but the Conservatives lost 13 seats while Labour gained 30. In Germany, the parliamentary elections held on 24 September 2017 confirmed that the CDU/CSU are the country's leading political force (32.9% of the votes), ahead of the SPD (20.5% of the votes). In Spain, the Catalonia parliament declared independence on 27 October. The Spanish government responded with various measures, including the holding of elections in Catalonia, scheduled for 21 December 2017. In Malta, Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist and anti-corruption activist, was murdered on 16 October 2017 when her car exploded. The full report of the Standard Eurobarometer 88 survey consists of several volumes. This volume presents the state of public opinion in the European Union (EU). Three other volumes present the opinion of the Europeans on other themes: the EU's priorities; European citizenship; and media habits in the European Union.