Results of our studies

IN BRIEF

The way that Russians would like to spend their weekend is not only doing housework and watching TV, but also meeting friends and going on nature walks. In fact, all most of Russians do is housework and watching TV.

MOSCOW, June 10, 2013. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the information describing how Russians would like to spend their weekend and how they really spend it.

Results of nationwide poll

The perfect weekend for Russians include meeting friends (40%), going on nature walks (37%), watching TV (38%), doing household chores, and being busy with children or dacha (38%). The share of those who would like to spend free time visiting museums, exhibitions or theatres is also big (24%), as well as the share of those who would read books (23%), go to clubs or cinema (20%),  do hobby (19%), listen to music or watch movies (12%, for each). Seventeen percent of Russians (per each group) prefer doing sports or surfing the Internet. Rarer Russians point out self-education (9%) or going to church (7%). More than one-quarter of respondents (26%) would like to relax and do nothing.

Men and women have different opinions on the perfect weekend: men would like to meet friends first (43%), whereas women would do household chores and would be busy with their kids (43%). Women would also like to spend weekend visiting cultural events (29% vs. 18% among men), reading (27% vs. 19, respectively), and doing their hobby (22% vs. 15%). On the contrary, men are willing to do sports (21% vs. 13% among women) and surfing the Internet (19% vs. 15%).

In reality Russians can hardly spend their weekends the way they want it: in most of cases they do not go beyond domestic chores and watching TV, spending more time on that than they planned (58 and 54, respectively). Their demand for communicating with friends is hardly fulfilled (26%), as well as their desire to visit cultural events (not more than 5% of Russians manage to do it).  The same thing can be said about nature walks (13% of respondents), entertainment spots (visited by 8% of Russians) and sports grounds (7%). Desires coincide with possibilities among those who prefer surfing the Internet (21%), reading (20%), listening to music (13%), watching movies at home (12%) or just relaxing (28%).

Results of Social Media Monitoring

According to social media monitoring conducted by the Social Networks Agency, the bloggers assess the weekends they pass as neutral (70% publications). The share of those who negatively assess weekend is only 8%. Every fifth assessment is positive (22%).

Most of social media users report that during the weekend they travel or do housework (15%). Others report that they go on nature walks (10%), get training (9%), have a rest (8%), visit cultural sites, do sports or meet friends (5%, for each). Two or three percent of publications refer to work and spending time in the Internet.

The VCIOM opinion polls were conducted on March 30-31, 2013. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 138 communities in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

The Monitoring of publications was conducted by the Social Networks Agency on May 13-26, 2013.  The open source engines (Blogs.Yandex.ru, Blogsearch.google.ru) and a special search tool were used during the survey. A total of 486 relevant publications were analyzed.

Imagine your perfect weekend. What would you do? Choose not more than five activities.

(close-ended question, not more than five answers)

 

Total respondents  

Men

Women

Reading books, newspapers, magazines

23

19

27

Visiting entertainment spots (discothèque, cinema, concert)  

20

20

20

Doing sports, going to sport clubs, sections

17

21

13

Visiting cultural sites (theatre, museum, exhibition)

24

18

29

Self-education, retraining courses

9

9

9

Housework, children, dacha  

38

33

43

Doing hobby (needlework, photography, modeling

19

15

22

Surfing the Internet, playing games; social networks; reading news  

17

19

15

Watching TV

38

39

38

Listening to music

12

13

11

Watching a movie at home (videotape recorder,  computer)

12

13

11

Meeting friends

40

43

38

Nature walks

37

36

37

Going to church, religious meeting

7

5

10

Having a rest, doing nothing

26

27

25

Other

2

2

1

Hard to tell

1

2

0

How do you really spend your weekend? Choose not more than five usual activities.

(close-ended question, not more than five answers)

 

Total respondents  

Men

Women

Reading books, newspapers, magazines

20

18

22

Visiting entertainment spots (discothèque, cinema, concert) 

8

9

8

Doing sports, going to sport clubs, sections

9

12

7

Visiting cultural sites (theatre, museum, exhibition)

5

3

6

Self-education, retraining courses

5

5

6

Housework, children, dacha  

58

49

66

Doing hobby (needlework, photography, modeling)

8

5

10

Surfing the Internet, playing games; social networks; reading news  

21

25

18

Watching TV

54

55

54

Listening to music

13

14

11

Watching a movie at home (videotape recorder,  computer)

12

12

12

Meeting friends

26

29

24

Nature walks

13

14

12

Going to church, religious meeting

6

3

8

Having a rest, doing nothing

28

33

24

Other

3

2

3

Hard to tell

1

1

0

The way Russians really spend weekend:

The way Russians would like to spend weekend:

Reading books, newspapers, magazines

20

Reading books, newspapers, magazines

23

Visiting entertainment spots (discothèque, cinema, concert) 

8

Visiting entertainment spots (discothèque, cinema, concert) 

20

Doing sports, going to sport clubs, sections

9

Doing sports, going to sport clubs, sections

17

Visiting cultural sites (theatre, museum, exhibition)

5

Visiting cultural sites (theatre, museum, exhibition)

24

Self-education, retraining courses

5

Self-education, retraining courses

9

Housework, children, dacha  

58

Housework, children, dacha  

38

Doing hobby (needlework, photography, modeling)

8

Doing hobby (needlework, photography, modeling)

19

Surfing the Internet, playing games; social networks; reading news  

21

Surfing the Internet, playing games; social networks; reading news  

17

Watching TV

54

Watching TV

38

Listening to music

13

Listening to music

12

Watching a movie at home (videotape recorder,  computer)

12

Watching a movie at home (videotape recorder,  computer)

12

Meeting friends

26

Meeting friends

40

Nature walks

13

Nature walks

37

Going to church, religious meeting

6

Going to church, religious meeting

7

Having a rest, doing nothing

28

Having a rest, doing nothing

26

Other

3

Other

2

Hard to tell

1

Hard to tell

1

 

Results of social media monitoring

Assessment of the weekends spent  (% of the total number of relevant publications on the subject)

Negative

8

Neutral

70

Positive

22

Weekend activities  (%  of the total number of relevant publications on the subject)*

I was travelling 

15

I did housework: I was busy with dacha

15

I went to the countryside; I had a nature walk

10

I was busy studying (self-study)

9

I had a rest

8

I took some alcohol

5

I visited cultural events (museums, theatres, exhibitions)

5

I did sport

5

I met my friends

5

I watched a movie at home

4

I went to the cinema

3

I did shopping

3

I worked

3

I surfed the Internet; I played computer games

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!

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