The surveys focused specifically on working conditions of online platform workers in Ukraine. Most of these workers refer to themselves as “freelancers”. They find work through digital labour platforms that is posted by clients from Ukraine and from other countries. The work can last from several minutes to several months; it is not classified legally as an employment relationship. This means that the working conditions of these “freelancers” remain outside the scope of labour regulation.

This report is based on two surveys, a qualitative and a quantitative one, conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on request of the International Labour Office in September-December 2017.

More than half of the Ukrainians consider themselves to be happy. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, in May 2018, 63% of the Ukrainians felt happy or rather happy, 16% felt partly happy, partly not, and 17% were unlucky or rather unlucky.

The assessment of the social welfare by the population of Ukraine is negative, the index is -46 (its value may vary from -100 to +100). Compared to 2017, this estimate has slightly increased. Ukrainians are, on average, much more satisfied with their own lives than with the life of the country (the index is higher by 52 points); over the past three years, the index of individual well-being has increased from -8 to +6 and now corresponds to the pre-war level of 2013.

According to the results of the survey, the majority of respondents (67%) is concerned about the war in the East of Ukraine. Also, among the problems which are of the most concern among the Ukrainians are living standards (54%), the economic situation (42%) and safety of Ukraine (23%).

 

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology monitors the dynamics of self-assessment of the state of health among the Ukrainians since 1995. Survey data show that over the past five years, the state of health of Ukrainian residents remains virtually unchanged: in comparison with 2013, research does not record either improvement or a statistically significant deterioration in how Ukrainian residents assess their own health status. However, if compared with 1995, it is noticeable that the level of the health self-esteem has increased.