Russians may be poised for war with Ukraine and at odds with the West and international community — but you wouldn’t know it, given their happiness index.
Fully 78 percent of Russians say they’re the most content they’ve been in 25 years, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center VCIOM found. Last year, before the crisis in Ukraine, the happiness rating stood at 77 percent, Breitbart reported.
Among the happiest were the 18- to 25-year-olds — the age group most likely to be called into battle of Russia’s behalf. About 92 percent of those in that age said they were happy, the survey reported.
Russians gauge their happiness to a great deal by the quality of their family lives, the survey showed. One of three poll respondents said their happiness was linked to family life, their children or grandchildren, or to an interest work life, Breitbart reported.
The least likely to report happiness blamed their negative outlooks on poor health and subpar standards of living, the survey said.
The survey asked about 1,600 people in 45 different Russian regions to rate whether they were “definitely happy” or “quite happy” as opposed to “rather unhappy” or “definitely unhappy.” The participants were asked to then asked to affix a rating of negative-100 to 100 to their responses.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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