site.btaOver 60% of Romanians Remain Pessimistic about Country's Future, but Share of Optimists Is Increasing

A total 62.5% of Romanians are pessimistic about the country's future (compared to 70.6% in March and 69.7% in January). Some 30.8%  believe that Romania is moving in the right direction (compared to 25.5% in March and 24.8% in January), shows data from the latest survey of the sociological agency INSCOP sent to BTA on Monday.

The biggest pessimists were among the supporters of the nationalist party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and people with very low incomes. At the other extreme wre supporters of the ruling coalition of the Social Democratic and National Liberal Party, people aged between 18 and 29 and those with very high incomes.

A total of 33% of Romanians were most worried about the possibility of conflict/war involving Romania (up from 9.9% in May 2014), 28.6% of respondents were worried about price increases (compared to 24.5% in May 2014). Deteriorating health was the biggest source of concern for 18.5%  of those interviewed (up from 17% in May 2014).

Some 5.5% of Romanians are most worried about the deterioration of the environment (2.4% in May 2014), 4.9% - about the decrease in income (16% in May 2014), 4.7% - about job loss (22.7% in May 2014), 1.7% are worried about possible natural disasters (2.6% in May 2014), and 1.9% - about other problems (3.7% in May 2014), 1.2% said they didn't know or didn't answer.

The public opinion poll was conducted between April 12 and 20 through telephone interviews. A total of 1,100 people from different socio-demographic categories aged 18 and over participated. The maximum allowable data error is ± 2.95%.