MOSCOW, February 14, 2008 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on what share of Russians is currently in love and how many of us have experienced the real love in life.

It was acknowledged seven years ago that amorousness is inherent to both men and women to the equal degree (25% of respondents supposed, that it more characteristic of men, 26% thought that it is more inherent to women, and 44% considered the both sexes to possess this character trait to the equal extent). Now, however, the public opinion tends to agree that women have become more amorous, than men. At the same time, women are even more confident of the fact than men themselves are.

It is worth mentioning, that responses provided to a different question demonstrate that 60% of Russian men consider themselves to be amorous, however, no more than 49% of Russian women do. The average of Russians in love stays approximately at the same level and accounts for 53-54% (at least for the last five years).

The majority of respondents up to 45 years are experiencing the feeling of being in love, this feeling is especially characteristic of respondents aged 18-34 years (73-77%).

The higher educational level respondents have, the more inherent to them romantic moods are. If 34% of respondents with incomplete secondary education feel themselves to be in love, this index is nearly twice as high in the group of respondents with complete or incomplete higher education and totals 62%.

High purchasing capacity is another factor that promotes the appearance of this feeling. Thus, in love are two thirds of respondents who can afford to buy durable goods (68%). And when respondents do not even have enough money to buy food, they do not give too much thought to being in love: only 32% of those who can hardly make two ends meet, are currently experiencing this emotion.

The majority of Russians have tasted the real love. As a rule, this has happened to them only once, however, the share of those who have only experienced it once has reduced during the last 6 years from 47% down to 43%, and the share of those who have been strongly in love twice has increased (from 9% up to 17%), as well as the share of those who have loved three times (from 1% up to 8%), or even more (this index equals 9% and has remained the same). The portion of those who have never experienced love has simultaneously decreased (from 13% up to 6%).

If 15% of the youth aged 18-24 years admit that there has still been no place in their life for this feeling, no more than 5% of more senior respondents of 25 years of age and older do so. The older the respondents are, the harder they find providing an answer to the question of whether they have experienced the real love in their lives (12-13% of respondents under 35 years of age and 20-22% of respondents older than that).

The initiative all-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on January 8-9, 2008. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%