Russians Happier With Life Than Before – Poll

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russians are more satisfied with their lives now than at any other time in the past seven years, according to a new poll released this week by the state-run public-opinion researcher, VTsIOM.

In the survey, conducted last month, Russians’ overall satisfaction with life earned a score of 60 points, up from 43 in 2011.

Russians are also more positive than before about their families’ financial situations – 64 points in 2012 compared to 55 last year and 37 points in December 2005, the earliest date for which VTsIOM released results of the annual poll.

The scoring system runs from minus 100 for most negative attitude to 100 for most positive.

The survey likewise points to greater optimism among Russians about how they will be living a year from now, with that score up to 66 from 53 last year.

For the three remaining questions, scores were all about 20 points higher than last year’s. But they were down from their maximum in 2007, before the global financial meltdown – suggesting that the former US President Bill Clinton’s campaign wizard James Carville may have been onto something 20 years ago when he posted his famous message at campaign headquarters: “The economy, stupid.”

Russians’ assessment of their country’s economy got a score of 48, versus 61 in December 2007. Feelings about Russia’s “political situation” weighed in at 63, down slightly from 68 in 2007. And agreement with the idea that “the country is heading in the right direction” scored 55 points, down from 64 five years earlier.

The six-question poll, released Thursday, involved 1,600 respondents, and was conducted December 22-23 in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is 3.4 percent.

 

Leave a comment