One third of Estonian residents rate their economic situation as good or very good, and as many as 90% consider it to be at least satisfactory, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by Kantar Emor.
Of Southern Estonian residents, however, one in five, including 16% of pensioners, consider their economic situation to be bad or very bad.
“90% of Estonian residents consider their economic welfare to be at least satisfactory, which means that it is bad or very bad in the opinion of just one tenth of them,” Kantar Emor executive Aivar Voog said.
“The share of those who rate their economic welfare as good or rather good has been on the rise for the past five years; compared to the crisis years, it has as much as doubled,” he added.
The results of the survey indicated that younger and wealthier people, as well as residents of Tallinn, Northern Estonia as well as the Tartu area, or Tartu and Jogeva Counties, tended to be more satisfied with their economic situation.
While the ratio of people who feel satisfied or rather satisfied with their economic situation was 36% in the capital city of Tallinn, the ratio of such respondents in Southern Estonia’s Voru, Viljandi and Valga Counties totaled around one fifth. Those unsatisfied with their economic situation accounted for 7% of respondents in Tallinn and 19% of respondents in Southern Estonia.
Differences also persist between the perceptions of ethnic Estonians and people of other ethnic backgrounds living in Estonia regarding their own economic situations. Of ethnic Estonians, 34% consider their economic situation to be good or very good, compared to just 23% of people of other ethnic backgrounds.
“On the other hand, we can say that in our country the regional and age-based differences in assessing one’s coping are even bigger than differences based on ethnicity,” Voog said.
14% of Estonian households, of which there are as many as 81,000, have no savings or investments, particularly in the Viru region in Northeastern Estonia, rural households, and people living alone.
At the time of the poll, 67% of respondents had savings on their bank account, 38% in cash, and 26% in the form of a bank deposit. Of the households surveyed, 28% would be able to cope for a period of at least six months in the event that their primary source of income were to disappear, including an above-average ratio of households in Tallinn and families with no children. One in five households, meanwhile, would be able to get by for just one month or less.
Kantar Emor surveyed 1,650 randomly chosen Estonian residents between the ages of 18-74 this May. (ERR/Business World Magazine)