Half of Russians live customary life, 25% restrain themselves – poll

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 7, 2013) Most Russians claim they are accustomed to contemporary living conditions yet 54% admit “life is hard but tolerable,” sociologists said.

“The number of such citizens has declined over past months (from 85% in December),” the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Tuesday presenting a recent poll.

Meanwhile, the number of respondents who described their life as favorable has grown from 31% to 37%. Nine percent still claim “life is disastrous and cannot be tolerated any longer.”

Most of the respondents claiming “a hard but tolerable life” are elderly persons (63%). They also constitute the majority of the respondents who say they are unable to endure their disastrous positions (12%). Positive opinions are given by the respondents aged 18 to 24 (54%), the sociologists learned in a poll held in 130 towns and cities in 42 regions of Russia.

Most of the Russians accustomed to the new rules of life (49%) are persons aged from 18 to 24 (56%) and respondents with medium incomes (56%).

Some 26% have to restrain themselves, mostly elderly persons (34%) and Russians with incomes smaller than medium (33%). A total of 15% said they had used the new opportunities to be successful; the majority of them is younger than 35 (21-23%) and has high incomes (26%).

Eight percent of the respondents, mostly elderly persons (12%) and people with low incomes (12%), told the sociologists they were unable to adapt to the new life.