Among other key events are unprecedented increase of prices, the war in Ukraine and presidential election in Kazakhstan
From December 8 to December 18 2022 DEMOSCOPE Bureau of Public Opinion Express Monitoring conducted a survey of the citizens on the topic “The Most Noteworthy Events of 2022».
The survey revealed that the tragic January events became the most noteworthy for 54% of Kazakhstan citizens.
41% of the citizens mentioned unprecedented increase in food prices. The war in Ukraine became the most serious shock For 40% of the respondents. Roughly the same number of citizens (39%) said that the snap presidential election in Kazakhstan was an important event for the society. Multiple answers could be selected for this question.
Further in the rating of the most significant events are:
- Waning of COVID-19 pandemic and return to normal life – 18%;
- Nur-Sultan being renamed to Astana – 17%;
- FIFA World Cup in Qatar – 14%;
- Eurovision contest in Italy – 4%;
- Winter Olympic Games in Beijing – 4%.
One of the most important questions was the one about what people expect from the coming year. The respondents were asked what changes they were looking forward to in 2023. Multiple answers could be selected for this question. Interestingly, according to DEMOSCOPE research, most Kazakhstani hope for the economic and geopolitical crises to wane.
The majority of the respondents chose various economic needs above all.
60% hope for prices for essential goods to decrease. More than a third of the respondents (34%) believe that it is crucial to increase social security for vulnerable populations. While 38% want the national currency to strengthen.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular answers to this question correlate to the previous ones. The second most popular expectation was the desire for peace and stability. Almost a half of the respondents (47%) are looking forward to the end of the war in Ukraine in 2023.
Kazakhstani also voted for the most significant social changes:
- Reforms in training programs for medics and educators – 27%;
- Introduction of an election system for akims of all levels – 24%;
- Development of an effective system for the Kazakh language teaching – 22%;
- Creation of a real political opposition (new parties) – 9%.
To continue with the topic of expectations, it is worth mentioning that the majority of Kazakhstani (64%) believe that 2023 will be better than 2022. There are also pessimists (21%), who expect 2023 to be more difficult. While 15% think that the coming year will be just like 2022.
Citizens’ socio-economic experience was another important characteristic of 2022. Almost a half of the respondents (45%) said their quality of life remained the same.
While a total of one third of Kazakhstani claimed that the quality of life worsened, if compared to that in 2021. According to the survey, in 2022 the quality of life became worse for 25% of the citizens, and significantly worse for 6%.
A quarter of the respondents are satisfied with their quality of life in 2022: 18% believe that it improved, and for 6% the quality of life significantly improved.
In order to compare the current year with the previous one, the respondents were asked to choose a phrase that they regard as the most accurate. 45% believe that 2022 was more difficult than 2021. A third of the respondents think that 2022 was just like 2021. And only 22% said that 2022 was better than the previous year.
The results of DEMOSCOPE Bureau show that Kazakhstan society was seriously shaken by the January events, the war in Ukraine and the following economic crisis and inflation. It is obvious that the citizens had not been prepared for such turbulence. However, the majority of the population remain optimistic and believe that the best is yet to come.
For the press-release and infographics in the Kazakh, Russian languages follow the link. Attribution is compulsory when any part of the text is used
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Method: The survey was conducted from December 8 to December 18 2022 via telephone interviews among cellular subscribers in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The basis of the sample was the pool of numbers obtained through a random number generator. We surveyed 1110 people from 17 regions and cities of federal subject significance (Astana, Almaty, Shymkent). The survey was conducted in the Kazakh and Russian languages. 21% of the respondents chose to answer in Kazakh and 79% chose the Russian language. 47% of the respondents were male and 53% were female over 18. The maximum size of statistical error for this sample with probability of 95% does not exceed 3%. The telephone survey was carried out by the contact-center LLC “KT Cloud Lab». The project is implemented by MediaNet International Centre for Journalism Public Foundation with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The survey data reflects the views of the respondents. For more information, please contact Snezhana Tsoy: snezhana.tsoy@medianet.kz