The Russian Far East attracts Russians by its employment and career opportunities and ecology. The prospects for regional development are highly assessed.
MOSCOW, May 29, 2017. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of a survey commissioned by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Agency for the Development of Human Capital in the Far East.
The Russian Far East is ranked fourth (14%) in the list of Russian regions with the highest growth potential (according to the results of the nationwide poll); it is outstripped by the Central region (52%), the Crimean peninsula (29%) and the south (28%). This share is higher among the inhabitants of the Far East (26%); however, based on their answers the Far East is also ranked fourth.
The most attractive aspects of life in the Far East mainly refer to well-being and employment: respondents cite opportunities to have high income (40%), career opportunities (23%), and occupational work (22%).
Asked about the living conditions, respondents prefer the Far East to their place of residence as it provides better environmental conditions and human relationships, whereas weak points (potential growth areas) appear to be the quality of education services and cultural diversity. The highest standards of living are reported to be in the Central and Southern Federal Districts; the lowest ones are in the North-Western and Siberian Federal Districts. Remarkably, those who moved permanently to the Far Eastern Federal District assess the potential and diversity of its cultural life much higher (they were offered to make a comparison with their home region).
The most attractive resettlement programs (programs that more than half of Russians would be willing to use or recommend to their relatives to move permanently to the Far Eastern District) are related to employment and social protection, fringe benefits to resettlers, annual free travel ticket for children (within Russia).
The “Far Eastern hectare” program is interesting to more than 10% of Russians; 14% would consider receiving a hectare of land in the Far East (and 27% of residents of the Far Eastern District). Respondents who would participate in the program would like to build a house to live there (39% among Russians in general; 44% among inhabitants of the Far Eastern Federal District). Farming and business opportunities are still less attractive to Russians.
Interestingly, when assessing the Far East development prospects, the opinions of the residents of the Far East and that of Russians in general do not differ too much. So, more than 40% of both those surveyed across Russia and those living in the Far East predict a significant development growth in about fifteen or twenty years (however, compared to 2015, these shares have decreased); and more than 10% consider this region to be one of the most prosperous regions in Russia. About 25% of respondents report distant prospects (forty or fifty years). Eleven percent of Russian residents and 16% of the Far Eastern residents do not believe in development prospects.
Results of the survey are available in Power Point.
The VCIOM survey was commissioned by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and comprised several stages: 1) a nationwide survey in November 2016 in 130 settlements, 46 regions and 8 federal districts of Russia; the sample size involved 1,600 persons and was representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over according to sex, age, education, type of settlement; the survey was conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage; the margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%; the survey method was community-based structured face-to-face interviews; 2) a survey on a sample of 9,000 persons, conducted in November 2016 in the Amursk region, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatka Krai, Magadan oblast, Primorsky krai, Sakha Republic, Sakhalin region, Khabarovsk Krai, Chukotka Autonomous okrug. The population of each survey is all the population of each administrative unit under examination. The data acquisition method: household survey using a structured questionnaire. A specially designed sample representative of the population of particular subject of the Russian Federation was used. Four criteria were taken into account when designing the questionnaire: gender, age, education, and type of settlement. The margin of error does not exceed 3.1%.
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