Ukrainians are ready to join the European Union and NATO. Survey.

Ukrainians are ready to join the European Union and NATO. Survey.

According to a recent research, 69% of Ukrainians support Ukraine joining the EU, 57% are ready for the country to join NATO - the results of the all-Ukrainian study performed by the sociological smart platform LibertyReport.ai on behalf of the most influential talk show in Ukraine “Freedom of Speech by Savik Shuster” and the OMF research foundation.

The survey was conducted on March 12, 2021 from 12:00 on March 11th till 12:00 on March 12th, 2021. A representative sample of respondents included 1,510 people, representing the opinion of the entire country by gender, age, type and place of residence. The marginal error of answers - 2, 58%.

Sociologists asked respondents two questions:

- Do you support Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union?

- Do you support Ukraine joining NATO?

Citizens in a number of countries have been asked the same questions in referendums before joining the European Union or NATO: Sweden in 1994, Denmark in 1998, Malta, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia in 2003.

The results of the survey show that the number of people in Ukraine who want to live in the European Union has increased significantly. To date totaling 69% of citizens older than 18 years old.

According to research conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (https://i-soc.com.ua/) in 2018 48% of Ukrainians answered positively to the question of joining the EU, and 59% in 2019.

Men more often than women support Ukraine becoming a member of the EU - 75% and 66%, respectively.

Residents of the western part of the country have the most positive attitude towards joining the EU. In this part of Ukraine, 84% of respondents supported the country becoming a member of the EU. The lowest number of respondents supporting the EU integration is in the east - only 49%.

The opinion of residents of rural and urban areas does not differ significantly: 67% and 72%, respectively.

Among representatives of different generations young people aged 18-29 years look most positively towards joining the EU. 80% of respondents in this category support Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union. The elder generation, 60 years and older, is the least likely to support this event - 53%.

Of the 1,510 participants in the survey, only one quarter, 25%, spoke against the country becoming a member of the EU. The highest percentage of those who do not agree with the European integration was among the residents of the eastern regions of Ukraine - 43% and representatives of the older generation (60 years old and older ) - 37%. It is interesting that older people are more often hesitant to answer - 10% of representatives among the generation of 60+.

More than half of Ukrainians support joining NATO

A survey conducted by the sociological smart platform LibertyReport.ai showed that 57% of Ukrainians are positive about the country joining NATO. Two years ago, in 2019, only 46.5% of Ukrainians answered "yes" to the question about membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. (According to research conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. (https://i-soc.com.ua/) )

Men are significantly more positive about becoming a member of NATO than women - 70% of men and 51% of women support this idea. In addition, 10% of the women were hesitant to answer.

There are more supporters of joining NATO among the urban residents than among the rural residents - 61% and 54%, respectively.

The Ukrainian youth almost twice as often as the older generation is positive about joining NATO - 72% of respondents aged 18-29 answered "yes", and only 43% of participants of the survey aged 60 years and older agreed that joining the Alliance would be beneficial. Exactly half, 50% of Ukrainians ages 45-59, and 64% of respondents aged 30-44 support joining NATO.

The idea of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO was opposed by 36% of respondents. Remarcably, in the southern and eastern regions of the country, 56% of respondents said "no" to joining NATO, while in the west and the central regions - only 17% and 26%, respectively.

Teens today are choosing a European course for Ukraine

As part of a large survey, the LibertyReport.ai team also conducted a survey among 200 children aged 16-18 to find out whether they support joining the European Union and NATO. These results are not representative and speak rather of the current trend of public opinion among the younger generation. According to this survey, 83% of respondents aged 16 to 18 years old want Ukraine to be in the European Union and only 13% are against it, further 4% have not decided on their position yet.

78% of respondents said that they see Ukraine in the Euro-Atlantic Alliance. 15% of people aged 16 to 18 are against such a future for the country and another 7% are still hesitant.

Research methodology

These are the results of a national representative survey, conducted using the MIXED-MODE approach. It reflects the opinion of adult Ukrainians ages 18+.

In exactly 24 hours from 12:00 on March 11th till 12:00 on March 12th, 2021, 1510 people took part in the survey.

The principle of stochastic stratification by gender, age, place of residence, and type of settlement (rural/urban) was applied in the formation of the sample, which allows us to consider answers of respondents as a reflection to the opinion of all citizens of Ukraine in these categories. The maximum error possible is 2.58%.

The "MIXED-MODE" approach provides a combination of online interviews via the Liberty Report online sociological panel and the CATI telephone survey, in the proportion 70/30. This combination allows to promptly receive answers from representatives of all sociological strata (categories of citizens), including those who do not have access to the Internet. This ensures the representativeness of the received data.

For comparison, using the classical method of "face to face" interviews requires about a week to process a similar dataset. Such speed of processing data of sociological and marketing research by Liberty Report platform is achieved thanks to specially developed IT-algorithms using the principles of artificial intelligence and Big Data processing.