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Russians regard low income and quality of life as country’s key issues — survey

Low pensions and problems related to the pension reform rank second, according to the survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center

© Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russians point to low income and poor quality of life as the country’s main problems, Director General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center Valery Fedotov said at a year-end press conference

"Few things have changed throughout the year. The first and most acute problem is low salaries and substandard quality of life. From 21% to 26% of respondents named this problem as the chief headache our country faces," Fedotov said.

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Low pensions and problems related to the pension reform rank second. "Little if any hope at all is being placed on it, rather it is regarded as more of a risk. From 15% to 20% are concerned about it," the center’s chief noted.

Unemployment takes third place, closing the top three, Fedotov said. This problem is the key focus for 14%-19% of respondents.

The happiness index that the Russian Public Opinion Research Center has been assessing since 1990 approached a pre-crisis level in 2017. "The last mark that we registered this fall is 70 points. It was 72 points in the spring of 2017, 66-68 a year ago and 64 two years ago. We can say that this indicator has been growing in the recent two years and has in fact surpassed even the pre-crisis levels," the Russian Public Opinion Research Center chief said.

He stressed that the adaption to new complicated conditions had occurred, "and our people can feel happy not because [of some facts,] but in spite of [them.]" Fedotov specified that 39% of those surveyed stated that they definitely feel happy, another 45% feel rather happy, 9% don’t feel quite happy, and 5% of respondents do not feel happy at all.

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