JOY rating: dynamics

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09.11.2011

JOY rating: dynamics

According to the results of a study conducted by the Rating Group at the end of September 2011, the greatest sources of joy for adults aged 18+ are family (66%), children (53%), and friends (41%).
Completing the top five of the “JOY RATING” are money (31%) and watching television (27%).
For one in five, work brings joy. Almost one in five also finds joy in being in nature, travel, music, birthdays, and giving and receiving gifts.
One in six gets joy from pets and from housework and household chores. Slightly fewer respondents gain joy from vacations/holidays (14%), food (13%), sex (13%), cinema (12%), books (12%), and the Internet (10%).
Less than 10% of respondents get joy from prayer (church), shopping, singing, sports, and victories of their favorite team. Less than 5% get joy from dancing, studying, theater, solitude, alcohol, and gambling.
Only 3% of respondents say that nothing brings them joy in life.
It should be noted that compared to a similar survey conducted by the Sociological Group “Rating” two years earlier, in 2011 people feel less joy only from watching television, going to the cinema, and vacations/holidays.
For all other areas, feelings have either not changed or improved — the largest “increase in joy” is seen in work, sex, and the Internet, as well as birthdays and gifts, pets, and victories of favorite teams.
At the same time, over the two years the number of people who feel joy from solitude has increased significantly — now 5%.
In addition, over the two years people have begun to feel less joy from television and more from the Internet.
As of the end of September 2011, the happiest appear to be residents of the North (especially Kyiv), the West, and the Center. The least joyful are residents of the Donbas.
The WEST clearly leads in joy derived from family and children, work, songs, and prayer (church). As two years ago, prayer (church) brings the greatest joy to Greek Catholics.
Residents of the CENTER receive relatively more joy from birthdays and gifts, as well as from housework and pets. By these criteria, the Center is very similar to the SOUTH, which in addition is the absolute leader in joy from watching television.
Residents of the EAST are the absolute leaders in joy from money — here the saying “better to have a hundred friends than a hundred rubles” works less, because the East is the only region where people gain more joy from money than from friends. At the same time, people here like to spend time in nature and derive much more joy from vacations and travel than in other regions. They also enjoy birthdays and gifts, shopping, and food.
Music, cinema, books, and theater bring significantly more joy to residents of the NORTH (especially Kyiv).
Family brings joy equally to city and village residents. At the same time, friends, money, travel, books, and the Internet appeal more to city dwellers, while children, gifts, housework, church, and songs bring more joy to village residents.
Family, children, gifts, housework, pets, books, theater, shopping, singing, and prayer bring more joy to women, while friends, money, work, television, food, the Internet, sports, victories of favorite teams, alcohol, and gambling bring more joy to men. As two years ago, sex brings significantly more joy to men than to women.
Sadly, with age people feel less joy. The older people are, the less joy they feel from friends, money, travel, music, cinema, sex, shopping, dancing, and sports. The older people are, the less they enjoy birthdays. At the same time, they increasingly enjoy housework, television, and church. Nevertheless, older people enjoy books more than the young.
Middle-aged people enjoy solitude more than others; they also derive more joy from giving gifts, books, theater, and being in nature. They also find work more joyful than others.
As two years ago, young people continue to be less joyful than others about children (since they are still children themselves) and family, while enjoying friends, music, travel, the Internet, cinema, sex, dancing, and sports much more than others.
Using correlation analysis of respondents’ answers, we attempt to construct a kind of JOY MATRIX and identify related types of joy.
Thus, if “BIRTHDAYS” bring joy, then people also enjoy receiving and giving gifts and get more pleasure than others from shopping. As two years ago, they like receiving gifts more than giving them. Note that respondents who enjoy shopping also have a very positive attitude toward money, which is logical.
The second — the most “ACTIVE” group of related joys — includes work, vacations/holidays, friends, food, money, sex, travel, and the Internet.
This group contrasts with the “INACTIVE” one, which includes prayer, songs, and housework and household chores. For the latter, joy from pets is often a related type of joy.
Sports, dancing, victories of a favorite team, and studying form the related joys in the “SPORT” group.
The next — the “ART” group — includes cinema, music, books, and theater.
Joy from “SOLITUDE” correlates most strongly with joy from being in nature. This group is close to and often overlaps with the “ART” group.
People who feel joy from family also feel joy from children, and vice versa. This group is conditionally called the “FAMILY” group.
In the “GAMBLING” group, alcohol and gambling are closely related sources of joy.

Methodology

Survey population: population of Ukraine aged 18 and over.
Sample size: 2,000 respondents.
Method: face-to-face formalized interviews.
Margin of error (95% confidence):
– near 50%: not more than 2.2%
– near 30%: not more than 2.0%
– near 10%: not more than 1.3%
– near 5%: not more than 1.0%
Fieldwork period: September 17–27, 2011.
Regional breakdown:
- West: Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivtsi
- Center: Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy
- North: Kyiv city, Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv
- South: Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol
- East: Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv
- Donbas: Donetsk, Luhansk