Poll: Belarus’ priorities are traditional values

Employees of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Sociology addressed 1,050 respondents with a question: what are their life expectations for 2023. The Director of the Institute, Nikolai Myslivets, commented on the results.

“The mood of Belarusians in relation to 2023 was actually rooted in the results of the assessment of the past year, since most of them considered it successful,” Mr. Myslivets said, adding that there is a certain difference in the views of various groups: young people mostly believe that 2023 will be better than 2022 (two-thirds of them shared such opinion), while only half of the older respondents answered in the same way.

This time, the question was slightly different: what wishes did Belarusians have for 2023? Health (24.8 percent) and peace (19.8 percent) topped the list. There were other answers as well – such as calmness, economic growth, happiness, improvement of life, and love, but the top two were natural for absolutely all categories of Belarusians, in cities and villages. In addition, 61 percent of those asked considered the year 2023 to be better than 2022, while 18.1 percent said this year would be the same for them as 2022. Only 4.5 percent of respondents were afraid of deterioration this year, and 16.4 percent of them found it difficult to clearly answer. 

2023 is the Year of Peace and Creation, and – according to the poll – it organically meets people’s aspirations and expectation, which logically continue the trends of 2022. As before, Belarusians’ priorities are traditional values – such as peace, tranquillity, well-being, harmony and creativity, memory of the past. “Therefore, the 2022 Year of Historical Memory absolutely naturally transformed into the year which focuses on peace and creation. We still intend to preserve and maintain unity in our families and the labour teams we are part of,” Mr. Myslivets added.