IRI study reveals the happiest cities around Ukraine

Lutsk, Vinnytsia, and Chernihiv lead the list of large Ukrainian cities ranked by quality of life, the survey results conducted by Rating Sociological Group on International Republican Institute (IRI) behalf in April-May showed.

Respondents — almost 17,000 Ukrainians, residents of all oblast centers except for those under temporary occupation — rated their cities according to 19 parameters related to the quality of service and services. It was about garbage collection infrastructure, medical facilities, transport, roads, street lighting, education, as well as the work of the police, the quality of water, energy and gas supply, heating, and also about ecology, accessibility for disabled people, the condition of bomb shelters, social protection, work of administrative services Centers.

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Since the country's big cities are currently in different conditions, the authors of this year's study - the ninth in a row - divided the rating into three categories.

The second - the Center area - included 6 cities (including Kyiv), occasionally suffering from enemy missiles and drones attacks. Vinnytsia took first place in this category.

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Third area - Front-line - included 7 cities located close to the border with Russia or next to the combat zone, and constantly suffer from various enemy shelling. Chernihiv residents are the most satisfied with their city among the residents of such settlements, the IRI study showed.

"This poll is a snapshot of where we are now, where we've been," said Michael Druckman, IRI director.

"It gives us some ideas about where things can go next, and how to take advantages that are already emerging today, despite the war."

The largest share of those who are convinced that things in their city are moving in the right direction live in Vinnytsia - 73% of them live there, the study revealed. Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv also entered the top 5 in this criterion (the corresponding percentages in these cities range from 58% to 63%).

Vinnytsia residents are also quite optimistic about the future: being asked how they see the future of Ukraine, 72% answered "rather encouraging" and only 21% - "rather hopeless". Chernihiv residents turned out to be the most optimistic - 77% of them are full of hope.

When asked how the economic situation of your family has changed over the past year, 22% of Ivano-Frankivsk residents, 27% of Odesa residents, and 28% of Kharkiv residents chose the option "much worse." That is, these three cities have become leaders in terms of the economic dissatisfaction.

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Kharkiv is the most satisfied with their city government - 26% here rated it as "completely approving", another 40% - "rather approving".

Respondents in Vinnytsia and Lutsk gave the rating "rather approve" in this question most often - 47% and 48%, respectively.

Almost half of Kharkiv residents rated their mayor as "completely approving". Ivano-Frankivsk took second place in this category, where every fourth citizen rated the mayor equally highly.

The IRI study has been conducted annually since 2015, with the exception of 2022 — due to the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine