MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The share of Russians who have no concerns about loneliness has increased from 54% to 68% over the past 15 years, a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) showed.
The poll was conducted on March 2, covering 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older.
"Resistance to loneliness is growing in Russian society: over the past 15 years, the share of Russians not fearing it has grown from 54% to 68%. The lack of differences in the answers of those who have already built a family and those who are still in search of a soulmate (67% and 71% respectively), suggests the idea of reconsidering marriage, weakening the link between marital status and the feeling of security from loneliness," VCIOM said in a report published on the organization's website.
According to the survey, 22% of respondents believe that someone who has no family or relatives can be called a lonely person. Another 16% associate the feeling of loneliness with the lack of friends and like-minded people. Every tenth respondent (10%) noted that a lonely person is someone who has no one to turn to for help, and 9% of respondents consider lack of communication and social ties a sign of loneliness.
Among the Russians surveyed, 7% of people believe pensioners can also be called lonely. However, the Generation Z turned out to be the most vulnerable to the feeling of loneliness - these young people experience the fear of loneliness 1.6 times more often than Russians in general.
"There is a significant decrease in attention to the psychological aspects of loneliness: over the past seven years, people almost stopped to equate a lonely person to someone who is withdrawn and unsociable. This may indicate that our society has partially overcome the stigma of loneliness and no longer associates it with always being a corollary to personal qualities," the publication reads.
In general, Russians continue to note the growing number of lonely people around them (40%), but this trend is somewhat weaker than 15 years ago (48%). As for finding the second half, the share of those who think it is easy has grown from 18% to 25% over the past 15 years.