The press release was prepared by Yuliшa Sakhno

During December 3-11, 2021, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion poll "Omnibus". By the method of computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile telephone numbers (with random generation of telephone numbers and subsequent statistical weighing) were interviewed 2,000 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except AR of Crimea). The sample is representative of the adult population (18 years and older) of Ukraine. The sample does not include territories that are temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine - the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

In Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the poll was conducted only in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.

Statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) does not exceed: 2.4% for indicators close to 50%, 2.1% for indicators close to 25%, 1.5% - for indicators close to 10%, 1.1% - for indicators close to 5%.

According to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, in December 2021, 71% of Ukrainians felt themselves happy or rather happy, 13% felt partly happy, partly not, and 15% rather or did not consider themselves happy.

Compared to last year, the level of happiness in Ukraine has not changed (in April 2020 the share of happy was 68%, in December 2021 - 71%, the difference within the error), and remains higher than in 2015-2017. The increase in the level of happiness after 2017 is largely due to the improvement of the financial situation of the population during this period.

*The average annual indicator for 2012-2013 is given. Since May 2015, data for Ukraine without temporarily occupied territories (AR of Crimea, part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) are presented. Level of happiness - the percentage of those who consider themselves happy / rather happy person. Level of welfare is the percentage of those who have enough not only for food and clothing. 

The level of happiness remains different for different categories of the population.

By age:

• The level of happiness is highest among young people aged 18-39 (81%) and decreases with age, in particular in the group aged 40-59 67% are happy, among people over 60 - 62%.

By level of welfare:

• Richer people tend to say they are happier than the poor. Among people with low income (not enough for food or only enough for food) 56% consider themselves happy, among people with average income (enough for food, clothes, can save a little) - 76%, among people with high income (can afford themselves expensive purchases without much difficulties) – 86%.

By level of education:

• Education has a positive effect on the perception of being happy - the higher the education, the higher the level of happiness. Thus, among people with incomplete secondary education, 61% of respondents consider themselves happy, among people with higher education – 79%.

By place of residence:

• Somewhat happier people - among residents of the western regions (75%), and less - in the southern regions (66%), in the east (69%) and in the center (71%). Nevertheless, urban residents are generally happier (72%) than those living in rural areas (67%).

By gender:

• According to self-assessment, men and women are generally about equally happy: 69% among men called themselves happy, 72% among women (the difference is within the margin of error).

Comment by KIIS analyst Yuliia Sakhno.

The current poll shows that despite the pandemic and other problems, the country's residents now feel as happy as they did two years ago. One possible explanation is that people perceive COVID-19 as a common external threat that affects everyone, which can create a sense of solidarity and support for those who have fallen ill. Also, previous KIIS researches have shown that self-esteem of happiness depends primarily on satisfaction with one's own life (including family, personal, intimate life, work, financial status, health), and is less related to the perception of common problems or threats. such as the state of affairs in the country, ecology, etc.). Even the war in eastern Ukraine led to a significant drop in the level of happiness only in those territories where hostilities took place, and had little effect on the self-esteem of happiness in other regions. That is, as long as the problems remain distant, they have little effect on whether a person feels happy.

Comment by KIIS Director General Volodymyr Paniotto.

In the same December 2021, KIIS together with the “Democratic Initiatives” Foundation took part in the international project "End of the Year" of the Gallup International Association, which was implemented in 44 countries.   https://dif.org.ua/article/ukraina-u-svitovikh-tendentsiyakh-shcho-ukraintsi-ta-reshta-svitu-ochikuyut-vid-2022-roku?fbclid=IwAR3tqNeahgS_WRETb58RAsxZ66YxlCGajACnmFklr_jcEJdvjFYb93vHG8w

The project calculates the so-called index of happiness, which is equal to the percentage of happy minus the percentage of unhappy. According to our research, 51% are happy, 31% are unhappy, 19% are neither one nor the other  and the index of happiness is 20% (51% -31%). Ukraine ranked 38th out of 44 countries (Russia ranked 40th with index of happiness of 18%, ranking in the top five most ruthless countries in the world). Why the data of this project are so different - 51% are happy, not 71%.  The fact is that the Gallup project asked «In general, do you personally feel very happy, happy, neither happy nor unhappy, unhappy or very unhappy about your life?».  And it translates not as a feeling of happiness, but as satisfaction with own life: «In general, how can you assess the attitude to your life: You are very satisfied with it, satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied?».      Of course, these are similar concepts, but they are different - life satisfaction is a more rational concept associated with the assessment of certain aspects of life, and feelings of happiness - more emotional. In recent years, the level of life satisfaction is about 20 percentage points lower than the level of happiness (so in 2020 there were 68% happy and 48% satisfied with life).

ANNEX. Tables

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by age, December 2021, %

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by welfare self-assessment, April 2021, %

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by level of education, December 2021, %

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by macroregions, December 2021, %

Western region: Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi regions; Central region: Kyiv city, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Sumy, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions; Southern region: Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson regions; Eastern region: Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk regions (without occupied territories).

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by type of terrain, December 2021, %

Do you consider yourself a happy person? Distribution by gender, December 2021, %

Dynamics of the feeling of happiness in Ukraine (2001-2022)*, %

* The combined annual average indicator for 2012-2013 is given. Data from May 2015 for Ukraine without temporarily occupied territories (AR of Crimea, part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) are given.

For comments, please contact Julia Sakhno,  j.sakhno@kiis.com.ua