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Poll: Ukrainians are not concerned about smoking problems in the country
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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For Ukrainians, the primary social problems are low wages and rising prices. The population is least concerned about smoking and the language issue.
This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Bureau of Statistical Analysis (BSA), which were announced today by the head of BSA, Maria Chernova.
The most important social problems that require urgent solutions, according to respondents, include low wages, rising food prices, the decline of the national economy, unemployment and corruption. More than a third of respondents named these problems. At the same time, smoking occupies the penultimate place in this list of problems, only surpassed by language issues.
According to the surveys, 26% of respondents currently smoke and 20% smoked before. Among the reasons for starting to smoke, they named the influence of friends (35%) and the desire to seem grown-up (12%) in first place. To the question "Will raising the excise tax on cigarettes solve the problem of smoking?" 77% of respondents answered negatively. At the same time, 75% of respondents believe that raising the excise tax on cigarettes will lead to an increase in the shadow sales of tobacco products. Also, 77% said that they would continue to smoke if cigarette prices increased, including due to an increase in excise taxes, and only 18% of smokers surveyed said that they would quit smoking in this case.
"This problem (smoking - UNIAN) exists, but it requires professional approaches, and we are dealing with outright propaganda. If you look at the results of the research, you can see that people know about the problem, in other words, the information reaches them, propaganda is in full swing, but there is no sense in this propaganda," said the president of the Ukrainian Trade and Industrial Confederation Volodymyr Demchak. "There is propaganda of a healthy lifestyle, and there is a healthy lifestyle.
The society was offered propaganda of a healthy lifestyle, and it is being passed off as a healthy lifestyle. But it did not exist and does not exist, and it is not clear how either government bodies or public organizations are going to achieve it,” noted V. Demchak.
He emphasized that people are concerned about other social problems, and they should be solved first. "I do not want to say that we should not engage in tobacco smoking and solve the problem of tobacco smoking. We definitely should, but by other methods, those that give results. We need to make government decisions and laws that would implement a healthy lifestyle in Ukraine. And let the same excise taxes that are collected from tobacco and alcohol, etc., go to these purposes," added V. Demchak.
The survey was conducted in September of this year using telephone interviews and an online survey. 1,600 residents of the largest cities were interviewed.
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