71% of Ukrainians consider themselves happy, while one in six (16%) feel unhappy, according to a poll conducted May 7-June 3, 2026, by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). The share of happy Ukrainians has barely changed since December 2025 (71% versus 69%), but has risen compared with December 2024 (58%).
"A majority of Ukraine's population (71% of respondents) consider themselves happy, with 31% saying they are unequivocally happy and 40% choosing 'more yes than no.' Another 11% of respondents answered 'both yes and no,' reflecting an ambivalent attitude toward their own happiness. Meanwhile, 16% of respondents said they are unhappy or somewhat unhappy (9% said 'more no than yes,' and another 7% said 'no')," KIIS said in a press release on its website.
These figures show that despite the war and the challenges society faces, most Ukrainians are happy, with only one in six feeling unhappy — happy people outnumber unhappy people by more than three to one. The poll demonstrates a high level of subjective happiness among Ukrainians even under difficult conditions.
KIIS Director General Volodymyr Paniotto, commenting on the results, said: "The research we and other sociological centers began conducting after the start of the full-scale invasion produced results that seemed paradoxical at first glance. Objectively, the situation in the country deteriorated sharply — millions of people lost their usual way of life, income, housing, and were separated from their families — yet in the first period of the war, many subjective indicators didn't worsen, and some even improved. This applied to the sense of happiness as well. During 2024, the share of those who considered themselves happy fell to 58%, but then began recovering quickly: by December 2025 it stood at 69%, and by May 2026 at 71%. In effect, the figure has returned to its December 2021 level, on the eve of the full-scale invasion.
This recovery happened almost entirely without a reduction in the number of unhappy people. In December 2024, about 16% of respondents considered themselves unhappy, and in May 2026 the figure was also 16%. Instead, the share of those who answered 'both yes and no' shrank from about 25% to 11%. In other words, a significant portion of people didn't move from unhappiness to happiness, but from an uncertain, contradictory perception of their lives to a more positive assessment of it.
So 71% happy after more than four years of full-scale war doesn't mean Ukrainians don't notice the war, or that their lives have become easier. Rather, these results demonstrate people's extraordinary ability to adapt to very difficult circumstances, restructure their system of expectations and values, and retain the capacity to assess their own lives positively. At the same time, 16% of Ukrainians feel unhappy, and behind that figure are millions of people for whom the war's consequences, losses, health problems, financial hardship or personal circumstances remain extremely difficult."
Happiness levels have traditionally been shaped by age, prosperity, health, education, romantic and family relationships, and confidence in the future, according to KIIS. Men are somewhat happier than women, largely because women in Ukraine live about 10 years longer than men, and happiness levels decline with age in Ukraine. In addition, because women live longer, more of them become alone as they age, which also negatively affects happiness levels.
Age. Happiness levels in Ukraine decline with age, which sets Ukraine apart from many studies in the U.S. and European countries, where subjective well-being follows a U-shaped curve by age — declining until around 45-50, then rising again. In May 2026 in Ukraine, 75% of people under 40 said they were happy, compared with 60% of those aged 70 and older.
KIIS conducted its own nationwide public opinion poll from May 7 to June 3, 2026, adding a question on self-assessed happiness on its own initiative. Using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random number generation and subsequent statistical weighting), 2,007 respondents were surveyed across all regions of Ukraine under the control of the Ukrainian government. The sample excluded residents of territories not currently controlled by the Ukrainian government (though some respondents were internally displaced people who had relocated from occupied territories), and the poll did not include citizens who left the country after Feb 24, 2022.
Under normal circumstances, the formal margin of error for a sample of 2,000 respondents (at a 0.95 confidence level, accounting for a design effect of 1.3) does not exceed 2.8%.
