The financial condition of 51.8% of Ukrainians has worsened over the past year, of 36.3% has not changed and only of 8% has improved, according to the results of a sociological poll conducted by the Social Monitoring Center on December 17- December 23.

Residents of the West and South of Ukraine, respondents over 50, and residents of villages more rarely reported the improvement of financial condition. Residents of the Center of the country, respondents under 40, and residents of regional centers reported more often an improvement in their financial condition. On the contrary, residents of the western part of the country and respondents over 50 more often reported a worsening of their financial condition.

At the same time, 62% of the respondents believe that the state of Ukraine as a whole has worsened over the past year, 23.8% that it has not changed, and 7.1% of the respondents are confident in the improvement. At the same time, according to the Social Monitoring Center, in previous years, fewer Ukrainians said that the situation had improved over the past year, and a little more about the worsening.

In assessing the outgoing year, 28.4% of Ukrainians gave it one point, 30.5% two points, 29.5% three points, 7.6% four points and 4% five points. The average score was 2.28. At the same time, young people assess the outgoing year somewhat better than people over 50; respondents with a financial situation above the average also give it a positive assessment.

Answering what was positive in 2020, most often respondents named health, and road repairs, work and rest. Some 21.7% of respondents answered that there was nothing good in the past year. Answering what was negative in 2020, the overwhelming majority named coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, and unemployment was also mentioned more often than anything else. Only 5.8% had nothing negative in the past year.

Some 34.7% of respondents believe that their life will improve in 2021, some 30% that it will not change, and 18.3% expect worsening. At the same time, the number of optimists is greater than in 2017 and 2018, but less than in 2012-2016.

In the course of the poll, 2,500 respondents in 24 regions of Ukraine (excluding uncontrolled territories) and Kyiv were interviewed by the method of individual interviews at their place of residence. Standard deviations at reliable 95% and the ratio of variables from 0.1:0.9 to 0.5:0.5 amount 1.2-2.0%.