Lack of money for food and termination of war are the most pressing issues for residents of the South and the East — survey

For more than a half (55%) of residents of the East and the South of Ukraine, the most pressing issue is that of lack of money for food and utility bills. Another 32% are most worried about the termination of the war on Donbas.

These are the results of the survey of residents of eight oblasts of the South and the East of Ukraine, which was conducted in the beginning of 2017 by the company GfK commissioned by the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and USAID.

Other most pressing issues are finding a job that would give enough income (26%), health (23%), and lack of money for expensive goods, like household appliances (20%). At the same time, getting education is pressing only for 4% of the residents.

During the last year, in Luhanska and Donetska oblasts, unlike in other oblasts, the problem with lack of money for food and utility bills has grown significantly: in 2016, 47% of residents of the Ukrainian-controlled Donbas mentioned it, and already in March 2017 – more than one half (60%) did. Also, more people consider the issue of termination of the war pressing (from 45% to 53%), while in the rest of the oblasts it even lost somewhat in urgency (from 29% to 28%).

In some front-line cities of Donbas, the issue of the war is significantly more urgent than the lack of money. For instance, 92% of the surveyed in Volnovakha, almost two thirds in Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Rubizhne said that the termination of the war is the most pressing issue for them, while the lack of money is pressing for 89%, 54% and 45% respondents, respectively.

Compared to 2016, the share of the poor, who are forced to skimp on food, stayed on the same level among the surveyed residents of all oblasts (19%). But the share of the poor in Donetska and Luhanska oblasts has grown significantly (from 27% to 37%) and is twice as big as in the rest of the oblasts (37% compared to 16%).

In all cities of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts, the shares of those, who say they need to skimp on food is significantly higher than in cities in other oblasts. In Mariupol, this indicator reached almost one half (48%; for comparison, in a similarly-sized Kryvyi Rih of Dnipropetrovska oblast – only 7%), in Starobilsk 42%, Volnovakha and Bakhmut — more than one third (35% in each), in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Rubizhne – almost one third (29%), in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk – a quarter (26%).

Analysis in more detail: on the IMI website.

Note: 

The survey was conducted by the company GfK commissioned by the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and USAID in January-March of 2017 in eight oblasts of the East and the South of Ukraine (Dnipropetrovska, Kharkivska, Zaporizka, Mykolayivska, Khersonska and Odeska oblasts, the territories of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts under control of the Ukrainian government). The survey covered 15,103 respondents. The theoretical margin of error for the entire sample does not exceed 1% and 2.5% for each oblast with probability of 0.95. The first wave of the research was conducted in November 2015 – January 2016 and covered 13, 830 respondents in six oblasts of the East and the South of Ukraine (all listed above, except for Khersonska and Mykolayivska oblasts).