A recent survey has suggested that more than 80% of Russians consider themselves generally “happy,” the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) reported on Monday. The pollster noted that the high happiness figures correlated with low levels of depression, reported in another recent survey.
The study, conducted by phone on October 27 and which involved 1,600 randomly selected Russians aged over 18, found that since 2015, the level of happiness among respondents has remained “consistently high,” with the share of those describing themselves as totally happy having not fallen below 30%.
According to the VCIOM survey, 81% of those asked described themselves as happy to some degree, with 37% considering themselves “definitely happy” and 44% “somewhat happy.”
By comparison, nine years ago, only a quarter of respondents were “definitely” happy, and ten years ago, only one in five said the same.
“In other words, no negative external factors during this period have managed to break Russians and make them unhappy,” the research center concluded.
VCIOM also cited an August study that found that Russians are not particularly prone to being discouraged, with 55% of respondents saying that people should try to avoid falling into such a state.
Only 3% of Russians in that survey described themselves as “constantly in despondency,” with 12% saying they felt this way “several times a month or more.” Those numbers correlate with the 16% of respondents who described themselves as despondent in the October survey, the research center noted.
Russians’ perceptions of the happiness of those around them have decreased, however. In March, 42% of respondents said they felt people around them were happy, while in the October poll, that number had dropped to 36%.
This indicates that the general assessment of Russians is, “I am happy as before, but the number of happy people around me has decreased a bit,” VCIOM said.