The recent survey shows 78% of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian their mother tongue, while 18% say it’s Russian.
That’s according to the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation which ran the poll together with the Razumkov Center’s sociological service, Radio Svoboda reports.
According to the survey, in the west and center of Ukraine, an almost absolute majority notes that Ukrainian is their mother tongue. In the southern region, 56% called their native language Ukrainian, and 41% — Russian. In the east of the country, 59% said Ukrainian was their native tongue, while 34% reported it was Russian.
Younger respondents more often say Ukrainian is their native language. Among the younger population aged 18–29, 83% see Ukrainian their native language, while the older group (respondents over 60), the share is 74%.
In addition, 55% of Ukrainians surveyed support the norm of the “language law” on rendering services in the Ukrainian language while maintaining the opportunity to serve customers in other languages at their request. Another 21% do not support such a norm and almost 18% of Ukrainians say they do not care about the said law.
Most of those who support a state language mandate in the services field live in the western and central regions (74% and 62% respectively), while 11% and 14% think the opposite.
In the south and east of Ukraine, the shares of those who support and do not support this norm of the law are approximately the same: in the south, it’s 33% who support it and 37% who don’t, in the east – it’s 38% who support it and almost 33% who don’t. In both of these regions, there are also about 30% of those who remain undecided on the issue or who do not care about the norm.
A nationwide survey was run from July 29 to August 4, 2021, in all regions of Ukraine except the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The survey was conducted through personal interviews at the respondent’s homes. In total, 2,019 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.
