The confidence of Russians that hard times are left behind and economic situation is being stabilized is growing. However, life is still hard for most of Russians, and social optimism is still low.
MOSCOW, September 22, 2011. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning how Russians assess the situation in their life, as well as what economic forecast they make.
As before, the majority of Russians describe their life situation as being hard (56%). Most of them are respondents who reside in big (63%) or small (60%) cities, are elderly respodnents (66%), and have average income (64%). For 30% of respondents life is favorable: most of them are Muscovites and St.Petersburgians, residents of middle cities (36% for each group), young respondents (53%) and those who have high level of income (40%). The share of those who cannot stand living in bad conditions has reached 11% after a small increase in the previous quarter (up to 14%). Those who negatively assess their living conditions are Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (17%), elderly respondents (18%), respondents with income below average (16-18%).
Fewer Russians expect difficulties to come in the future: the index has gone down from -47 tо -29, compared to the spring figures. This is due to the reduced number of groups of respondents who are convinced that the hard times are now (from 33 to 27%) and those who expect the hardships to come soon (from 37 to 32%). On the contrary, the number of those who think that hardships are in the past has increased (from 23 to 30%). Those who state that they experience hardships today are basically middle-aged Russians (31%).
The forecast of economic situation looks more positive than it was in spring: the index has become positive again (from -4 to 1 point). It was due to the decreased share of respondents who forecast the upcoming months to be hard for Russian economy (from 42 to 37%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted July 9-10, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
Which of the following statements is closer to the situation in your life (life of your family)? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||||
| IV.2010 | V.2010 | VI.2010 | VII.2010 | VIII.2010 | IX.2010 | X.2010 | I.2011 | IV.2011 | VII.2011 |
Life is hard but I can still stand it | 56 | 55 | 54 | 55 | 53 | 59 | 54 | 53 | 55 | 56 |
The situation is favorable for me and my family. In case of hardships I can easily handle them | 33 | 33 | 31 | 31 | 34 | 29 | 32 | 34 | 29 | 30 |
I can hardly stand such a terrible plight | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 11 |
Hard to tell | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
In your opinion, are the hard times now, were they in the past or are they yet to come? | |||||||
| VII.2010 | VIII.2010 | IX.2010 | X.2010 | I.2011 | IV.2011 | VII.2011 |
Currently | 35 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 27 |
In the past | 24 | 27 | 24 | 22 | 28 | 23 | 30 |
Yet to come | 27 | 30 | 32 | 31 | 29 | 37 | 32 |
Hard to tell | 13 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 11 |
Index* | -38 | -35 | -41 | -42 | -34 | -47 | -29 |
In your opinion, will the upcoming 12-month period be good or bad for Russian economy? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||||
| VII.2010 | VIII.2010 | IX.2010 | X.2010 | I.2011 | IV.2011 | VII.2011 |
Good | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
Rather good | 37 | 35 | 36 | 34 | 36 | 35 | 33 |
Rather bad | 24 | 29 | 29 | 26 | 27 | 33 | 30 |
Bad | 4 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
Hard to tell | 28 | 23 | 24 | 30 | 24 | 19 | 25 |
Index** | 15 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | -4 | 1 |
*Index can vary from -100 to 100. The higher the value is, the more people are confident that the hard times are in the past.
** Index can vary from -100 to 100. The higher the value is, the more people believe that the upcoming 12 months will be positive for Russian economy.
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!