Russians believe that the cost of everyday life has increased dramatically. Half of the population thinks that a family of three needs 60,000 to 90,000 rubles a month, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper writes following a new poll by the Romir holding.
In September 2013, the Romir research holding asked respondents in a nationwide poll how much money they believed a family of three persons needed to lead "a normal life." Romir regularly samples Russians' life demands, and the same question was asked in the past few years. The answers estimating the cost of living at 60,000 and 90,000 rubles were most numerous, whereas last year, these estimates stood at 45,000 rubles and 60,000 rubles. A total of 52% of respondents gave such answers, 27% of those polled named smaller sums while 21% named larger ones.
In 2013, the number of people who believe that 30,000 rubles or less are enough for a family of three in their settlement plunged by two times to 10%, from 22% a year ago, and 35% in 2009.
Whereas the share of those for whom "normal life beings" from 100,000 rubles did not exceed 12% to 15% in the previous years, it now has exceeded 20%.
On the average, "a normal life" of a family of three costs 76,500 rubles ($2,383.6) a month, up 22% from 2012, when 62,600 rubles were enough. Compared with 2011, this indicator decreased by almost 5% from 65,700 rubles. In 2009, it was at 56,000 rubles.
Hence, the increase in Russians' demands has only reached 16.5% in two years (since autumn 2011), slightly more than the official indicator of the consumer market inflation accrued over two years, yet far below the nominal increase in the average monthly wage (+26%) in the designated period.
According to the Rosstat Federal Service for State Statistics, the average after-tax income of a family of three in the summer of 2013 made up 66,000 rubles a month. Therefore, the desired level of income (this is how the answer to the question should be interpreted) turned out to be higher than the actual income by 16 percent, Romir experts said.
Muscovites estimate the cost of "normal life" at 114,000 rubles ($3,552) a month for a family of three, on the average. It is the only city where the actual average income approximates the "desired one," the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda notes.
Leonty Bryzov, senior researcher of the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview to the Novye Izvestia newspaper "Globally, these figures might be considered as a positive result. In the country, especially in large cities, the middle class is rapidly emerging. Although it is small, it begins to dominate socially and politically, imposing its consumer standards upon other groups. It is becoming a sort of reference point for the masses. In this respect, we admittedly are going the same way which Western Europe has already walked. So the political system should be arranged according to the demands of this middle class."