MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The number of Russians who do not consume alcohol has grown to 39% over the past eight years, a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed on Wednesday.
"The results of the surveys show a decrease in the level of alcohol consumption in our country. While in 2009 25% of Russians said they did not drink alcohol at all, in 2017 their number was 39% (47% among women and those aged between 18 and 24)," the pollster said.
On the other hand, 25% of those polled said they consume alcohol less often than once a month, and 16% of the respondents - two or three times a month. Just 5% of those polled said they drink alcohol every day of several times a week. Sociologists also registered a positive trend in terms of reducing alcohol consumption. About 44% of the respondents said they drink less alcohol than last year. At the same time, half of those polled (50%) said they consume the same volume of alcoholic beverages as a year ago.
According to the poll, most Russians (80%) believe that all alcoholic beverages have an adverse effect on one’s health, and there are no "harmless" alcoholic drinks. Only 15% of those polled thought that some types of alcohol pose no threat to one’s health (citing primarily wine as an example).
"The important trend that we have registered over the past several years is a steady decline in the consumption of the so-called ‘household narcotic drugs." <…> On the other hand, we note that a healthy lifestyle as an inherent value is becoming more widespread," Kirill Rodin, head of the pollster’s Information Policy and Communication Technologies Department, said commenting on the results of the poll.
The poll was conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center on August 3-4, 2017, with 1,200 people aged over 18 interviewed. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.