Kazakhstan people are positive about the future of the country, but believe reforms should be implemented

DEMOSCOPE Bureau for Express Monitoring of Public Opinion has conducted a public opinion poll to find out what people in Kazakhstan think about the future of the country.

1,951 people from Astana, Almaty and 14 regional centers of Kazakhstan took part in the poll. 75% of women and 25% of men aged over 18 were interviewed. The maximum statistical error did not exceed 1.33% with 95% possibility.

The respondents were interviewed by phone and online between 30 November and 06 December 2016.

59% of the poll respondents feel positive about the future of the country. They believe Kazakhstan will develop dynamically. 33% are more neutral. From their opinion, nothing will change in Kazakhstan in general, and everything will be relatively stable. And only 8% expressed pessimism about the country’s future, being sure the situation will become worse.

At the same time, 51% of the interviewees connect development of the country with necessity to implement reforms in different spheres that are political, economic and social. Such opinion prevailed among young people aged 16-29 and older respondents aged between 40 and 49 years old (62% and 63% correspondingly).

31% of the poll respondents are sure that reforms should be conducted in the fields of health care and education in first place, while 14% think they are necessary in the economic sphere. And only 3% admit it’s important to perform political transformation.

The interviewees from Aktyubinskaya, Kyzylordinskaya and Atyrauskaya Oblast are mostly interested in the reforms in the social sector (with 40% each).

Based on age groups, the economic reforms are mainly supported by those aged 30-39 years old (26%). 40% among the respondents that are 70 and over support changes in such spheres as health care and education.

The perspectives of Kazakhstan in each of the spheres (political, economic and social) were evaluated with moderate optimism.

Despite of the crisis and therefore worsening economic situation in the country presently, 51% of the respondents think the economy will gradually improve. 38% of the interviewed people do not wait for any improvements, as they believe the situation will be stable. The remaining 11% are sure the economic situation will gradually become only worse.

The minority of the interviewee (5%) predict it will be hard for Kazakhstan to avoid political weakening in the world arena, which will happen due to absence of some positive changes within the country.

8% of the respondents believe that only the country which is economically strong can have serious authority. While long-term economic crisis will prevent Kazakhstan from strengthening its political positions. The interviewees from Atyrauskaya Oblast (25%) were the most skeptical in this regard.

However, the majority of the interviewees (58%) think Kazakhstan will anyway improve its role in the international arena, being a stable country of the Central Asian region. And women supported this view at most. 62% of the interviewed female respondents were sure Kazakhstan will improve its positions in the political arena.

The respondents were less optimistic when asked about the future of the country in the social sphere. Meanwhile, 47% of the respondents think the social sphere will have not any changes, without becoming worse. 38% of the interviewees do not wait for improvements. Another 15% mentioned the economic problems will negatively affect the social sphere.

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