Over a year the number of Russian emigrants has increased, according to every fourth respondent. Those who leave Russia permanently are mainly young people with high income, living in metropolitan area and employed in the private sector.
MOSCOW, August 14, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre presents the information about the following issues: whether Russians consider the problem of emigration important for Russia; how they perceive those people who leave Russia; where they want their children and grand-children to live.
Most of Russians are concerned about the problem of emigration: two-thirds (65%) believe that this is an important problem. Those who think so are mainly residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg (74%), those who graduated from universities (68%) rather than rural area residents (64%) and people with elementary level of education (58%).
Russians say that the number of emigrants from Russia has increased over a year. Indeed, whereas in 2014 the share of those who thought so was 18%, this year the percentage is 24%, though less than in 2013 (29%). At the same time, the number of those who think that the share of emigrants has decreased has almost stayed the same (24% in 2014; 23% in 2015). One-third of respondents (32%) say that the number of emigrants is the same (from 42% in 2014).
Emigrants are mainly young Russians (74%), with high level of education (73%), high income (68%), and living in big cities (65%). Besides, they are active (78%) and strong (62%) and often employed in the private sector (54%); they tent to disapprove of the presidential work (49%).
According to the Medialogoia Company analysis of the Russian media, the most visible event on the topic of emigration was the publication about Ksenia Sobchak leaving Russia (March 2015). Later Ksenia Sobchak denied this information. The second place is held by the publication about the Dynasty Foundation founder Dmitry Zimin (June 2015). The Chairman of Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov stated that Dmitry Zimin was not going to leave Russia. The third popular publication refers to the relocation of Maria Gaidar to Ukraine (July 2015).
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted July 4-5, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
Monitoring and analysis of the Russian media publications were carried out by the Medialogia Company using 26100 sources such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, information agencies and online media. The rankings were based on the Event Visibility metric defined as a sum of publications on a certain topic in the most prestigious media. Research period: August, 2014 – July, 2015.
In your opinion, is the problem of emigration important, rather important or not at all important for Russia? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||||
| Total respondents | Moscow and St. Petersburg | Million cities | More than 500 ths | 100–500 ths | Less than 100 ths | Rural area |
Rather important problem | 65 | 74 | 68 | 59 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
Rather not important problem | 29 | 21 | 26 | 40 | 29 | 31 | 30 |
Don`t know | 6 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 6 |
In your opinion, has the number of people who leave Russia permanently increased, decreased or stayed the same over the recent several years? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Increased | 29 | 18 | 24 |
The same number | 37 | 42 | 32 |
Decreased | 21 | 24 | 23 |
Don`t know | 14 | 15 | 21 |
In your opinion, are there more weak or strong people among those who move permanently abroad? (closed-ended question, one answer per each line, %) | ||
More active | More inactive | Don’t know |
78 | 8 | 13 |
More old people | More young people | Don’t know |
15 | 74 | 11 |
More people with high level of education | More people with low level of education | Don’t know |
73 | 11 | 16 |
More rich people | More poor people | Don’t know |
68 | 18 | 14 |
More residents of big cities | More residents of small cities and rural area | Don’t know |
65 | 18 | 17 |
More weak people | More strong people | Don’t know |
21 | 62 | 17 |
More those who work in the private sector | More those who work in the state sector | Don’t know |
54 | 22 | 24 |
More those who approve of the work of the president | More those who disapprove of the work of the president | Don’t know |
16 | 49 | 35 |
More people engaged in artistic professions | More people not engaged in artistic professions | Don’t know |
43 | 27 | 30 |
More men | More women | Don’t know |
37 | 17 | 45 |
More people with traditional sexual orientation | More people of non-traditional sexual orientation | Don’t know |
32 | 16 | 52 |
TOP-5 most visible topics concerning emigration in Russian media
Ranking | Event | Event visibility |
1 | Ksenia Sobchak left Russia «on the recommendation of the security services» | 148.02 |
2 | The founder of the Dynasty Foundation Dmitry Zimin left Russia | 94.02 |
3 | Maria Gaidar moved to Ukraine | 68.17 |
4 | Pavel Durov, founder of the VKontakte social network, left Russia | 62.98 |
5 | Discussion about the payment of pensions of Russians living abroad | 60.51 |
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