The importance of most of problems returned to the levels of early 2017.
MOSCOW, September 27, 2017. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data of a study describing what problems Russians are most afraid of today.
After peaks in spring and early summer, most of indicators of the “fear map” returned to their early year readings. Russian fears of having health problems and problems getting medical help are still great.
The main factors that cause anxiety are fears related to the price increase and international tensions. However these two indicators saw a slight decrease in summer. The fear index related to price increase which was growing from 23 p. in May to 27 p. in June dropped to its early year value of 18 p. (17 p. in January). The index describing Russian fear of military conflicts hit 20 p. in June and dropped to 14 p. at the end of August.
The third position is held by the health-related problems and difficulties getting medical assistance: the August value was 6 p. (despite its peak in June, 8 p., this indicator remains high compared to the beginning of the year reading, 0 p. in January). Anxiety over possible domestic riots and conflicts has strengthened in April (up to 6 p.) and decreased to -2 p. in August. The dynamics of the fear of crime is the same: after hitting this year high (7 p.), the index went down to 0 p. in August.
The Russian fear of reduced income caused by salary decrease or delay in salaries which had its highest figure in June (-3 p.) returned to -8 p. in August and February. Concerns related to job loss have increased over the recent six months from -24 to -20 p. However, these readings remain to be negative.
Family problems are still ranked last in the rating of fears: the index was -47 p. in August similar to the values recorded at the beginning of the year.
*Fear Index reflects how high the probability of certain event is for Russian respondents. The Index is based on the question “In your opinion, what is the likelihood that the following events will happen in your life?”; it is measured in points and can vary between -100 and 100. The answers “I am completely confident that it will happen” corresponds to the coefficient “1”; “I think it will happen” – “0.5”; “it is likely to happen” - “0.1”; “it is not likely to happen” - “-0.1”; «I think it will not happen -“-0.5"; “I am completely confident that it will not happen”- “-1”. The higher the value of index is, the higher the probability of this event is.
The VCIOM opinion polls were conducted on August 24-29, 2017; 1,600 persons were surveyed in 130 settlements, 46 regions and 9 federal districts of Russia. The sample is representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over and stratified by 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 is community-based structured face-to-face interviews. Apart from the margin of error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the field work should be taken into account.
In your opinion, what is the likelihood that the following events will happen in your life? (closed-ended question, one answer, fear index*, points)
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| VIII.15 | VIII.16 | I.17 | II.17 | III.17 | IV.17 | V.17 | VI.17 | VII.17 | VIII.17 |
Common products disappeared or became too expensive; savings devalued | 10 | 14 | 17 | 24 | 22 | 25 | 23 | 27 | 24 | 18 |
International tensions, conflicts between countries, military actions | 14 | 20 | 12 | 14 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 14 |
Health problems; difficulties getting medical assistance and medicines | -4 | -5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
Crime rampage | -7 | -2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
Riots, inter-ethnic and religious internal conflicts | -6 | -2 | -5 | -4 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
Decrease in income (salary cut, switch to a lower paid job, switch to part-time, delays in paying salaries) | -15 | -14 | -11 | -8 | -8 | -4 | -6 | -3 | -11 | -8 |
Job loss | -25 | -30 | -24 | -23 | -23 | -23 | -20 | -18 | -24 | -20 |
Family conflicts, break-up with relatives | -42 | -49 | -47 | -49 | -53 | -49 | -45 | -47 | -44 | -47 |
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