60 percent of Armenians disgruntled by economic woes
By Sabina Idayatova
Shortly before the presidential election in Armenia to be held on February 18, Gallup International Association, a group of research agencies, has conducted a public opinion poll over the economic situation facing the country, ARKA news agency reported on Thursday.
35 per cent of respondents evaluated the economic situation in the country as being bad with 24 per cent saying it is very bad.
The Gallup poll was conducted Feb. 2-5 among 1,080 people over 18 in the capital Yerevan and other regions, including rural communities.
Director of the Armenian office of Gallup International Association, Aram Navasardian, said only three per cent of respondents assess the economic situation in Armenia as positive and 36 per cent as average.
Navasardian added that nine per cent assess their material well-being as good and only one per cent as very good. However, 60 per cent consider the material wealth of the family as being average, 21 per cent as bad and nine per cent as very bad.
"The difference between the estimates of well-being in the family and the situation in the country is stipulated by the fact that the family does not depend only on the situation in the country, as many depend directly on private transfers," Navasardian said.
Only 10 per cent of respondents are fully satisfied with life, while 21 per cent are dissatisfied and 37 per cent are partially satisfied.
Asked 'Will you live better or worse in a year?', 40 per cent of respondents stressed they will face the same situation, while 21 per cent believe it will be slightly better, and 13 per cent say they expect it to be slightly worse, six per cent much worse and four per cent much better. Around 17 per cent failed to answer the question.
The existing deplorable economic situation has prompted ordinary Armenians to leave the country. Thus, about 2.234 million people left Armenia, while 2.191 million arrived in 2012, according to the state migration body of the country, which has population of less than 3.5 million.
The Armenian statistics body released data last December citing an increase of the poverty rate, an indicator of economic predicament which is believed to pose the threat of a social explosion.
In the last three years 5 percent or about 160,000 Armenian citizens left the country, according to Armenian Report portal.
The number of people who did not return to their home country increased by 10 percent. With the given dynamic, it can be assumed that the number of the people who stay abroad will be 55,000 per year.
Given the South Caucasus republic's small population, this is a high percentage -- a dangerous demographic situation for Armenia -- and if this trend continues, the country may soon have almost no labor force left. Around two-thirds of the migrants have reportedly gone to Russia, while the rest have moved to the U.S. or Europe.
The most intensive migration was reported to the central and southern regions of Russia, as well as to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. At least 40,000 people have left for the United States and other industrialized countries.
About 60 percent of the entire total of 8 million Armenians live outside Armenia in 60 countries, with one million in the U.S. and Russia each. There are also large Armenian communities in Georgia, France, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, and Canada.