The index is based on a survey of almost 9000 respondents in 22 regions and the city of Kyiv, who assessed their towns and villages according to 22 indicators. The indicators based on the results of factor analysis were combined into 5 components of the Local Wellbeing Index: благополуччя:

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

In the overall analysis, emotional perception of one's locality received the best scores (0.7) and economic opportunities (-0.9) received the worst scores (values range from -3 to 3). Emotional perception is the only index where no area received a negative value. The country's civil security level was rated on average at 0.3 points, medicine and education at 0.2, and orderliness at 0.1. Based on the results of cluster analysis, respondents were divided into four groups: “optimists” (24%), “moderate optimists” (30%), “moderate pessimists” (24%) and “pessimists” (22%). The following criteria were taken as a basis for distribution: assessment of the state of affairs in Ukraine, region, settlement; assessment of changes in their own lives; assessment of expected changes shortly. Relatively more “optimists” turned out to be in Kyiv (68%), Ivano-Frankivsk (63%), Lviv (62%), Khmelnytskyi (61%) and Kyiv (60%) regions. Whereas the least number of “optimists” is in the frontline Kherson (27%) and Zaporizhzhia (31%) regions. Against this background, the Kharkiv region stands out, where the level of optimism (54%) is higher than in the neighbouring Sumy Region (41%); and in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where the level of optimism (51%) is higher than in neighbouring Mykolaiv region (46%) and Poltava region (45%).

Kyiv (0.9 points on a scale from -3 to +3) is the leader in the ranking of regions according to the Local Well-Being Index (LWBI). It is followed by several regions that have an overall positive value of the index: Lviv region (0.4), Ivano-Frankivsk (0.3), Kharkiv (0.3), Odesa (0.3), Volyn (0.3), Kyiv (0.2) and Khmelnytsk (0.2) regions.

“Middle-ranking regions” with more neutral assessments (index value ranges from +0.1 to -0.1) are Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Chernihiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Another number of regions received negative index values from -0.2 to -0.3: Zhytomyr, Poltava, Kirovohrad and Sumy regions. Zaporizhzhia (-0.5), Mykolaiv (-0.5) and Kherson (-1.0) regions have the worst scores.

Kyiv was ranked first in four components of the Index, except for civil security, for which several western regions are in the lead, while the capital itself is only in the middle of the list.

Kyiv is also the only region where the Economic Opportunity Index is positive, while the other 22 regions have negative values.

By type of settlement, people in villages rated local well-being significantly worse than urban residents. The only exception is civil security, where villages were ahead of cities. The older the respondents were, the better they assessed local well-being in their towns and villages, while young people gave more sceptical assessments. The affluent and “optimists” also gave the highest scores. A more detailed analysis of oblast rankings by components of the Local Well-Being Index (LWBI):

EMOTIONAL PERCEPTION OF SETTLEMENT

The leaders in terms of emotional perception of their regions were Kyiv (1.8), Kharkiv (1.1), Odesa (1.1), Lviv (1.0), Ivano-Frankivsk (0.9) and Volyn (0.8) regions. The worst scores were given to Mykolaiv (0.0), Kherson (0.1), Sumy (0.1) and Kirovohrad (0.1) regions.

At the same time, it was pleasant to find out that the residents of the Kherson region consider their city strong enough (0.3) – this is the 15th place out of 22, as well as the residents of the Zaporizhzhia region (0.2) – this is the 17th place. In terms of uniqueness in general, the Kherson region is in 4th place (0.8), and the Zaporizhzhia region is in 10th place (0.25).

CIVIL SECURITY LEVEL

The leaders in terms of civil security level assessments are some western and central regions, namely Ivano-Frankivsk (0.9), Volyn (0.8), Lviv (0.8), Ternopil (0.7), Vinnytsia (0.7), Khmelnytskyi (0.7), Chernivtsi (0.6) and Cherkasy (0.6). Kyiv ranked only 13th in this indicator (0.4), and the worst scores were given to: Kherson (-1.3), Zaporizhzhia (-0.8), Dnipropetrovsk (-0.3) and Mykolaiv (-0.2) regions, where civil security assessments have negative values.

LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND MEDICINE

The leaders in terms of education and medicine are Kyiv (0.9), Chernivtsi (0.6), Ivano-Frankivsk (0.6), Volyn (0.5), Odesa (0.4), Lviv (0.4), Khmelnytskyi (0.4) and Rivne (0.4). The worst scores were given to: Kherson (-0.9), Mykolaiv (-0.4) and Zaporizhzhia (-0.3), where education and medicine scores have negative values.

LIVABILITY OF THE SETTLEMENT

Kyiv (1.0) and Kharkiv (0.7) regions are the leaders in terms of assessments of settlements' livability. The Lviv, Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk regions also received relatively high scores (0.4). At the same time, several regions received negative values of the Index, the worst of which are Kherson (-0.9), Mykolaiv (-0.5), Sumy (-0.4), Zhytomyr (-0.4), Zaporizhzhya (-0.3), Zakarpattia (-0.3) and Poltava (-0.2) regions.

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Kyiv is the only region where the Economic Opportunity Index is positive (0.3), while the other 22 regions have negative values. Thus, after the capital, Kyiv (-0.5), Lviv (-0.6), Kharkiv (-0.7), Odesa (-0.7) and Dnipropetrovsk (-0.8) regions have relatively better scores in terms of economic opportunities. The worst indicators are in Kherson (-1.9), Sumy (-1.6), Mykolaiv (-1.5), Kirovohrad (-1.5), Ternopil (-1.3), Zaporizhzhia (-1.3), Chernihiv (-1.3), Poltava (-1.2) and Zhytomyr (-1.2).

METHODOLOGY

The population: of Ukraine aged 18 years and older in 22 regions and Kyiv city, who have access to the Internet and use a smartphone (over 80% of the adult population). The survey was not conducted in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and in Donetsk, Luhansk regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Sample population: 572 respondents, or at least 350 respondents per region (respondent's residence at the time of the survey).

The margin of error at the region level is no more than 5%.

Survey timing: : 22 листопада - 2 грудня 2023.

Метод: November 22 - December 2, 2023 Method: online survey (CAWI) via messengers and social media. To achieve random selection and maximum coverage, 2 287 million contact attempts were made, reaching 69 250 respondents, of which: