Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) – one of the first research companies that appeared in independent Ukraine. Over the 25 years of its existence, KIIS has conducted thousands of researches and accumulated the significant amount of data. Now KIIS execute about 150 projects per year. In the following press release, we present some indices that characterize the changes that took place in the Ukrainian society over this period.

Some of the topics that are a subject of KIIS research during many years and are presented are – the level of well-being, happiness and health, geopolitical orientations of the Ukrainians, the attitude of the population of Ukraine toward Russia and vice versa, the dynamics of the Internet usage, trust to social institutions.

If the elections to the Verkhovna Rada had been held in the middle of December, then out of all citizens of Ukraine aged 18 and above:

•  6.5%  would have voted for the party “All-Ukrainian union Batkivshchyna”,
•  5% – for the party “Block of Petro Poroshenko”,
•  4.1% – for the party “Opozytsiynyi block”,
•  3.9% – for the party “Za zhyttia”

The all-Ukrainian sociological research was carried out by joint efforts of four sociological companies:

• Social and marketing research center "SOCIS";

• Kyiv International Institute of Sociology;

• Sociological group "Rating";

• Razumkov Center.

The study was conducted with the support of the All-Ukrainian public organization "Komitet izbiratelei Ukrainy” (Voter Committee of Ukraine).

The number of the Ukrainians who hold positive attitude to Russia has slightly decreased since May 2017 and in September 2017 was 37% (in May it was 44%). The number of positively disposed to Ukraine people in Russia slightly increased, and in September 2017 it was 32% (it was 26% in May). The attitude of the Ukrainian population to Russia have been better than the attitude of Russia's population towards Ukraine since 2008.

Compared to May 2017, the support for the independence of Ukraine practically did not change: almost 90% of the population believe that Ukraine should be an independent state. At the same time, the number of those who want closed borders and customs with Russia is 49% (it was 43% before). In Russia, compared to May 2017, the number of those who want closed borders and customs with Ukraine has not changed much (decreased from 35% to 34%).

• Most of Ukraine's residents support Ukraine's accession to the EU, and compared to May 2017, the readiness of the population to vote for Ukraine's accession to the EU has increased: if the referendum on EU membership had been held in September 2017, 77% of votes would have been given for the accession, 23% - against.

• Ukraine's accession to the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan is not supported by the majority of the population: if the referendum on accession to the Customs Union had been held in September 2017, 22% would vote for joining the Customs Union, 78% - against. The attitude to the integration with the Customs Union has remained virtually unchanged over the last three years.

• In the referendum on joining NATO votes would be distributed as follows: 62% - for Ukraine's accession to NATO, 38% - against. Compared to May of this year, the share of people who are ready to vote for Ukraine's accession to NATO has slightly increased.

• Asked about the desired direction of foreign policy, 53% of those polled voted for Ukraine's accession to the EU, 11% - for joining the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, while 24% believe that Ukraine should develop independently without entering any of these associations. Compared to the beginning of the year, the support for the pro-European course has increased slightly, while the percentage of those who do not want either the accession to the EU or the Customs Union, neither joining the Customs Union has decreased.