MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The number of Russians dissatisfied with their life has declined from 24% to 21% in the past year, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement on Thursday.

"In February 2018, the life satisfaction index was 55 points compared to 42 points in February 2016. However, the current number has not yet reached the 2014 level (64 points). As many as 49% of Russians say they are satisfied with their life, while 21% express dissatisfaction and another 27% find both options are true," the statement reads.

Nearly one-third of Russians (32%) expect their life situation to improve, while 13% of those surveyed hold a negative outlook for the future and 39% believe that nothing will change. According to the pollster, in the past year, the social optimism index has dropped by four points, reaching 58 points.

"The number of the poll’s participants who believe that the country’s economic situation is below average exceeds the number of those who deem it positive (22% and 15% respectively)," the statement adds.

"Changes in social well-being indexes stem from the declining number of negative assessments in relations to all the monitored indicators," head of the pollster’s Social Modelling and Forecasting Department Yulia Baskakova said. "However, a declining negative evaluation does not always turn into optimism, and as we can see uncertainty about the political and economic situation is significantly increasing," she added.

The nationwide poll involving 2,000 people was conducted on February 22 and 24, 2018. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2% at the 95% confidence level.