MOSCOW, May 18, 2010. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning what Russians expect the next 12 months will be like, whether their lives will change next year, and whether we are currently going through a difficult time.
The confidence of Russians that the next year will be favorable for the Russian economy has been increased over the recent month from 44 to 46%. Those who are optimistic are basically the southerners (57%), residents of the Urals (54%) and Far East of Russia (55%). The share of those who expect the next year to be worse for the Russian economy has decreased from 28 to 26%. They are mainly residents of the Central Federal District of Russia (32%). The forecast of those with good financial income differs from those with poor financial income: the former wait for the good times (63%); the latter expect the worst thing to happen (40%).
The number of Russians who think the worst is behind us keeps on growing (from 23 to 27%). The part of those respondents who believe that the worst is yet to happen has been decreased over the recent month (from 31 to 25%). However, most Russians think that the worst time is now (36%). Those who think the worst is behind us are respondents aged 18-24 (38%) and Russians with good financial income (44%). Those who expect the next year to be difficult are Russians aged 24 (25-27%) and those with poor financial income (38%).
More and more Russians are optimistic about the future. The share of those who think everything will be changed for the better has increased (from 32% in February to 35% in April); the share of those who forecast the situation to get worse has been decreased and reached its maximum over the entire period of measurement (8% - compared with 20% in April 2009 ). As a result, the index rate kept growing through April and reached 61 points (58 in February this year). The more positive the forecasts of Russians for their lives are, the higher the index is.
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on April 10-11, 2010. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 %.
In your opinion, the next 12 months will be rather good or rather bad for the Russian economy? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||
| March 2010 | April 2010 |
Good | 6 | 7 |
Rather good | 38 | 39 |
Rather bad | 23 | 21 |
Bad | 5 | 5 |
Hard to tell | 29 | 29 |
In your opinion, the next 12 months will be rather good or rather bad for the Russian economy? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
| Total respondents | Financial self-assessment | ||
Very good, good | Average | Bad, very bad | ||
Good | 7 | 15 | 7 | 5 |
Rather good | 39 | 48 | 41 | 25 |
Rather bad | 21 | 13 | 19 | 30 |
Bad | 5 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
Hard to tell | 29 | 22 | 30 | 30 |
In your opinion, the worst is now, behind us or yet to come? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| May 1991 | May 1992 | April1994 | May 1995 | September1996 | January1997 | July1998 | May 2001 | June2008 | May 2009 | June2009 | July2009 | August2009 | September2009 | October2009 | November2009 | December2009 | Febuary2010 | March 2010 | April 2010 |
Now | 23 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 28 | 26 | 21 | 28 | 28 | 26 | 31 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 36 |
Behind us | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 11 | 25 | 41 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 23 | 26 | 27 |
Yet to come | 66 | 67 | 60 | 52 | 46 | 52 | 49 | 38 | 25 | 45 | 44 | 45 | 38 | 36 | 33 | 32 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 25 |
Hard to tell | 9 | 7 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 13 |
In your opinion, will your /your family life change next year? | |||||||||||||
| March 2009 | April 2009 | May 2009 | June 2009 | July 2009 | August 2009 | September 2009 | October 2009 | November 2009 | December2009 | February2010 | March2010 | April 2010 |
Everything will change for the better | 27 | 27 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 25 | 33 | 37 | 36 | 38 | 32 | 33 | 35 |
Everything will be the same | 41 | 43 | 44 | 44 | 43 | 62 | 44 | 42 | 43 | 40 | 45 | 44 | 46 |
Everything will change for the worse | 20 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 8 |
Hard to tell | 12 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 11 |
Index rate | 53 | 53 | 55 | 56 | 56 | 56 | 58 | 60 | 60 | 61 | 58 | 60 | 61 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!