In January of this year, citizens of Ukraine improved their assessment of both the economic situation in the country and the level of well-being of their own family: while in December last year, 66.5% and 37%, respectively, assessed them as "very bad" or "quite bad," then last month these indicators improved by 57.1% and 32%, according to the report based on the results of a survey conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center.

According to its presentation at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday, the indicators for assessing the economic situation became similar to those observed in February-March 2023, significantly losing to the indicators in September of the same year.

In particular, 16.3% of respondents in the new year consider the economic situation to be very bad, 40.8% - quite bad, 34.1% - neither bad nor good, 4.6% - good and 0.4% - very good.

The organizers of the survey indicate that the level of well-being of their own family, as a rule, is assessed by citizens better than the economic situation in the country. They recalled that in December 2023, assessments of the level of well-being of one's own family deteriorated slightly (8.8%, 28.2%, 50.7%, 9.6% and 0.9%, respectively) and were not statistically significantly different from those observed in September-October 2022. However, in January 2024, their improvement was observed again (6.0%, 26.3%, 52.3%, 12.0% and 0.5%, respectively), and now they are not statistically significantly different from those observed in February-March 2023.

Answering the question: "How have your family's income changed after February 24, 2022?," 24.7% of respondents say that it has decreased significantly, 32.8% has decreased slightly, 31.9% has not changed, only 4.2% - has increased slightly and only 0.7% - has increased significantly.

Compared to August 2023, the share of respondents who name permanent work as their main source of livelihood has increased (from 41% to 48%) and the share of those who name temporary work (from 9% to 5%) and financial assistance from various sources has decreased (from 5% to 2%).

It is noted that in January 2024, the share of those who believe that the economic situation in Ukraine will change for the better in the next three months decreased to 6.6% from 6.8% in December and 13.4% a year ago, while those holding the view that it will worsen rose to 33.4% from 32.9% in December and 22.7% a year ago.

Similar trends were observed in the dynamics of expected changes in the short-term level of family well-being. According to the latest survey, the share of those who believe that it will improve over this period decreased over the month from 8.3% to 7.3%, while those who are of the opinion that it will worsen increased from 25.1% to 25.8%.

The survey organizers indicated that expectations for changes in the short term are less pessimistic than in December 2020: then 41% of respondents expected deterioration in the economic situation in the country in the next three months, and 32% expected deterioration in the well-being of their own family.

They recalled that after the outbreak of a large-scale war, there was a significant improvement in economic expectations in the medium term (two-three years). Thus, the share of those who expected the country's economic situation to improve in the next two-three years increased from 30% to 43% in September-October 2022 compared to May 2021, and in February-March 2023 to 52%. However, since then this optimism has declined, and in January 2024, some 31% thought so, compared to 34.5% in December 2023. The share of those expecting the situation to worsen increased to 22.5% from 22.1% in December and 11.0% a year ago, and the share of those who find it difficult to answer jumped to 31.4% from 27.3% in December.

The share of those who expect their family's well-being to improve in the next two-three years decreased to 31.2% from 34.0% in December and 49.5% a year ago. Those who believe that family well-being will worsen over this period amount to 17.6% compared to 17.7% in December and 10.0% a year ago. Another 17.9% (19.2% in December) expect to maintain their current well-being, while the share of those who find it difficult to answer increased to 33.3% (29.2% in December).

The survey was conducted from January 19 to January 25, 2024, as part of the ENGAGE Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement activity funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine. The survey was conducted using the face-to-face method in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi regions and the city of Kyiv (in Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson regions – only in those territories controlled by the Ukrainian government and in which hostilities are not taking place).

The survey was conducted using a stratified multi-stage sample using random sampling at the first stages of sampling and a quota method for selecting respondents at the final stage (when respondents were selected according to gender and age quotas). The structure of the sample population reproduces the demographic structure of the adult population of the territories where the survey was conducted as of the beginning of 2022 (by age, gender, type of settlement).

A total of 2,000 respondents aged 18 years and older were surveyed. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%. At the same time, additional systematic deviations in the sample may be due to the consequences of Russian aggression, in particular, the forced evacuation of millions of citizens.