In Ukraine, the share of those who are optimistic about the countryʼs future is decreasing.
This is evidenced by a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
If at the end of 2022, 88% believed that Ukraine would be a prosperous country in the European Union in 10 years, then by December 2023 their share had decreased to 73%, and by December 2024 — to 57%.
At the same time, the share of those who believe that Ukraine will have a ruined economy has increased from 5% to 28%. However, it is important: although the share of optimists has decreased by 16% over the past year, not all of them have turned into pessimists — their share has increased by 9%. That is, a significant part of Ukrainians is more likely to talk about the high uncertainty of the future.
A similar trend is observed in all regions of Ukraine. KIIS notes that in the East and South of Ukraine, the mood of respondents is more pessimistic, but overall the situation is similar between regions — about half remain optimistic about the future of Ukraine.
Over the past year, there have been fewer people who believe that Ukrainians are gradually overcoming contradictions and moving towards a united political nation — from 69% in December 2023 to 53% in December 2024.
Instead, the number of those who believe that the contradictions are only deepening and Ukrainians are heading towards a split has increased from 25% to 33%. And the number of those who have undecided opinions on this issue has also increased from 6% to 14%.
Regarding this issue, the trends are quite similar in all regions, and the situation does not differ significantly.
At the same time, current assessments of unity in society are much better than they were in 2020, that is, before the full-scale Russian invasion.
How the survey was conducted
The survey was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from December 2 to 17, 2024. A total of 985 respondents were interviewed via telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all unoccupied territories of Ukraine.
The survey included citizens aged 18 and older who were living in Ukraine at the time of the survey. The survey did not include Ukrainians living in territories temporarily occupied by Russia and those who left abroad after February 24, 2022.
The statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.