Despite all the problems and difficulties, a little more than a half of the population of Ukraine are optimistic. According to a survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in December 2016, 54% citizens of Ukraine felt happy or somewhat happy, 25% felt partly happy and partly no, and 19% - rather unhappy or unhappy.

If the parliamentary elections had been held in the beginning of December, most likely the representatives of six political forces would have entered the Parliament: “Batkivshchyna” (18% among those who will vote and decided with the choice), “Opozytsiynyi block” (12%), “Block Petra Poroshenko” (12%), party “Za jyttia” (10%), Radical party of O.Liashko (10%), “Samopomich” (8%). On the edge of entry there is a party “Svoboda” (5%), party “Hromadianska pozytsia” (4.8%) also holds a chance to enter the parliament.

It turns out that many people interpret the sociological ratings incorrectly. Partly it is the fault of sociologists because they can not agree on the standards for the publication of ratings (actually they have agreed on some but not all). This comment is ought to help the readers of our site to understand this matter.

The first thing that is always made public is the percentage of those who will vote for a particular party (or candidate) WITH THE RESPECT TO ALL RESPONDENTS. This is the direct results of the survey, and in relation to these indicators, the sampling errors are calculated. These data are needed to compare different studies, but THEY DO NOT SHOW WHAT PARTIES WILL BE ELECTED TO THE PARLIAMENT.

82% of the Ukrainians estimate the current socio-economic situation as "bad". The main reason for that, according to the Ukrainians, is corruption in high places - so is said by 66% of respondents.

84% of the Ukrainians generally negatively estimate "everything that is happening in the country." Of those who gave this assessment, 56% believe that in this situation, "it is better to go out to protest," 16% believe that "it is better to endure it for the sake of peace." Thus, 40% of the Ukrainians say they are ready to personally take part in protests against the current government.

On the 17^th of November, in the International No Smoking Day, there was a press conference where a project of creating a national service to help smokers quit was presented. This initiative is being implemented by NGO "Zhyttia" (Life) as a part of a joint project of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the WHO Country Office, and is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation "Noncommunicable diseases: prevention and health promotion in Ukraine."