For 64% of Russians living in retirement is hard. Russians doubt that the size of pension will be enough for normal living.
MOSCOW, October 13, 2010. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data on what Russians think about retirement, whether they think the pension money are enough for them, and what age they think is the right time to start saving money for living in retirement.
According to Russians, retirement is a hard period of life (64%), rather than happy time (27%). Those who think that the life is getting worse with the retirement are elderly persons (67%) and pensioners themselves (69%), as well as servicemen (76%), entrepreneurs (79%), respondents without high education diplomas (69%) and low income respondents (72%). Those who are not afraid of the retirement are civil servants (34%), Russians holding higher education diplomas (34 and 36% respectively), respondents with high level of income (34%).
As before, the majority of Russians doubt that the size of pension will be enough for them to live (77%). However, the share of those who think that the money will be enough has slightly increased over the recent four years (from 10 to 14%). Those who are most skeptical are Russians aged 25-34, 35-59 (80-82%) and respondents with higher education diplomas working outside the production sector (86%). Those who are optimistic are Russians aged 25-34 (16%), elderly persons (17%) and civil servants (21%).
Two-thirds of Russians believe that one should start saving money before the pre-retirement age, thus, before 45 years old (66%): 26% think it should be done before you are 25, 21% - before 35 (in 2007 they were 27%), 19% - before the age of 45. Rarer respondents say that people should start saving money for their retirement not earlier than at the age of 46 (11%) or after 55 (3%). Those who think that one should get ready for the retirement as early as possible (before the age of 25) are Russians with higher education diplomas outside the production sector (31%) and those with low level of income (34%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on September 25-26, 2010. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of errordoes not exceed 3.4%.
Which of the following statements is closest to you? (close-ended auction, one answer) | |||||
| Total respondents | Age | |||
Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | ||
Retirement is the happiest period of lifetime: you can rest after your work; you are going to have plenty of time for your family, hobby; with age comes wisdom and experience | 27 | 30 | 28 | 30 | 27 |
Retirement is one of the hardest periods of life; you are thrown out of active life; you lose your income; you have less people to communicate with; your activities also decrease | 64 | 56 | 61 | 64 | 67 |
Hard to tell | 9 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 6 |
When you get retirement age, will your pension size be enough for living in retirement? (close-ended auction, one answer) | ||
| 2006 | 2010 |
Definitely, enough | 3 | 2 |
Rather enough | 7 | 12 |
Rather not enough | 30 | 33 |
Definitely, not enough | 50 | 44 |
Hard to tell | 11 | 9 |
At what age one should start saving money for retirement? (close-ended auction, one answer) | ||
| 2007 | 2010 |
Before the age of 25 | 27 | 26 |
At the age of 25-35 | 27 | 21 |
At the age of 36-45 | 17 | 19 |
At the age of 46-55 | 7 | 11 |
After 55 | 2 | 3 |
Hard to tell | 19 | 20 |
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.