In January, Russians were most concerned about the inflation. Their concerns regarding international problems are in decline.
MOSCOW, February 2, 2016. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey describing the problems that Russians were most concerned about in January.
Over the recent half a year, Russians mention economy, inflation and low standards of living among top significant problems.
It was economy that most of Russians listed in January 2016: concerns started to grow in November 2015 (17%), and reached 23% in January; the same record was fixed a year ago.
There has been a considerable upsurge in anxiety related to the increase in prices. In January, the share of Russians who considered inflation being the most important problem made up 20%, compared to 12% in December 2015. This share was equal to 22% in January 2015. The indicators have been considerably fluctuating during the last year (“economy” indicator decreased from 23% in January to 12% in June then went up again; ”inflation” indicator was going down from the beginning of the year till summer, than jumped and fell again by the end of the year.
Low salaries and livings standards have been considered as the top problems facing the Russian society today by 13 % of respondents over the recent three months. This is followed by unemployment (increase from 7% in November 2015 to 12% in January 2016), social policies (9% - vs 4% in January 2015), foreign politicy (7% - vs 12% in December and 14% in January 2015). The top ten problems involve health services (7%), education (7%), agricultural and industrial breakdown (6%), low pensions and pension reform (5%).
None of the respondents cited military actions in Ukraine, whereas this share made up 6% a year ago. Simultaneously, the military actions in Syria were listed among top problems by 4% of Russians (in January). Russians also were concerned about the ruble fall (5% in January 2016).
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on January 23-24, 2016. A total of 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions and republics of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
In your opinion, what problems are the most important for the country, in general? (open-ended question, not more than 5 answer of respondents) | |||||||||||||
| I.15 | II.15 | III.15 | IV.15 | V.15 | VI.15 | VII.15 | VIII.15 | IX.15 | X.15 | XI.15 | XII.15 | I.16 |
Economy | 23 | 20 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 17 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 23 |
High inflation rate, price increase | 22 | 24 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 20 |
Low salaries, low living standards | 10 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
Unemployment | 10 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 12 |
Social policies | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 |
Foreign policy | 14 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 7 |
Health services | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
Low level of education | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
Agricultural and industrial breakdown; dependence on economic resources | 8 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Low pensions, pension reform | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
Army reform, military capacity | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
Military actions in Syria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
Corruption and bureaucracy | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
Low prices for public utilities | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Inability to afford a house | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Roads | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Internal policies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
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.