The survey shows that neither gender nor age nor income is a significant barrier to friendship.

MOSCOW, June 7, 2019. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey on how many Russians have friends of the opposite sex, different ethnicity, belonging to different generations, having different levels of income, or with different religious views.

A big age difference is not a problem for being friends: 84% of Russians say they have friends of different generations. This share is higher among respondents aged 35-44 (90%).

Male-female friendship is pretty common among Russians: 82% report to have the opposite sex friends. They are basically persons aged 25-34 (92%), people with higher education levels (90%), and residents of Moscow and St Petersburg (89%).

Two-thirds of respondents (69%) have friends with an income level different from their own. They are mainly persons aged 25-34 (79%), people with good financial income (74%) and residents of medium-sized cities (73%).

Friendship between people of different nationalities is less common (64%); it is 76% among young Russians aged 18-24. Least popular friendship is between people of different religions (52%; 62% of men and 63% of the 18-24-year-olds).

VCIOM-Sputnik survey was conducted on June 5, 2019. The survey involved 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over. The survey was telephone-based and was carried out using stratified dual-frame random sample based on a complete list of landline and mobile phone numbers operating in Russia. The data were weighted according to selection probability and social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the