Poll reveals low wages, economy and healthcare problems worry Russians most

Society & Culture June 15, 2017, 8:17

Economy continues to be the most worrisome factor for Russians

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Low wages, state of national economy and healthcare are the main problems Russian citizens are concerned about, according to a survey conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Study Center (VCIOM). The copy of the report has been obtained by TASS.

"Judging by the results of this year’s May, low salaries are on top on the list of the problematic topics - 23% of Russians named this aspect as one of the most important problems in the country - this share is higher than in the beginning of the year (18% in January) and in May 2016 (15%).Also, people’s concern about the state of the economy in general has grown since January (16%) up to 24% in April, in May the figure was 21%," VCIOM said.

According to the survey, healthcare has been among top three most topical issues since the end of 2016. The relevance of this topic is still high - 20% of respondents voiced their concerns about it in May against 12% a year ago.

As for social policy issues the percentage indicator was at of 18-19% in February-April and in May it was 15%.

As for unemployment, according to the latest data, this problem was named among the main ones by 16% of respondents. The same applies to problems in education sector: within a year the share of respondents who marked this aspect varied within 8-14% (in May - 13%).

Every tenth of the interviewed named inflation (11%), corruption (11%), low pensions (10%) among the most pressing issues, while the issues in the housing and utilities sector (7%) are at the bottom of the May list.

Oleg Chernozub, an expert consultant with VCION, said that economy continues to be the most worrisome factor for Russians.

"It should be noted that the threat of unemployment remains a relatively weaker irritant of public conscience in comparison with the level of income," he said.

The expert also stressed that the attention of Russians to the problem of corruption has increased significantly.

The VCIOM poll was conducted on May 25-29, 2017 in 130 settlements in 46 regions, territories and republics of eight federal districts of Russia. In total 1,600 people in the age group of 18 years and older were interviewed . For this sample, the maximum error size with a probability of 95% does not exceed 3.5%.

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