Priority growth areas as seen by Russian citizens

Agriculture and manufacturing industry are seen by Russians as the country’s priority growth areas, followed by medicine, according the public opinion survey (1,670 respondents aged 16+) aimed at measuring social impacts of innovation. It was conducted on September 26–29, 2014 under the HSE ISSEK project “Forming the research programme in the sphere of social and human sciences and economics and evaluating social effects of innovation activities” carried out for the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

The top priority growth area for many people is agriculture (53%), the second one turned out to be manufacturing industry (38%). After these key sectors, the next important area of development was medicine and the health care system (31%).

Russians are noticeably concerned about housing problems and protection of national borders. Construction of high-quality and affordable housing and strengthening the country's defense system both got 21%. Development of transport and urban infrastructure came fifth (17%) and seventh (11%), respectively.

Areas that determine the community’s quality of life in the long term form a single block: education, culture and social protection (12%), science (11%), natural resources (11%) and electricity (11%), as well as protection of the environment (10%).

Development of services (6%) and communication (4%) appear at the end of the ranking. This may be due to the fact that in these areas, according to Russians, there have been the most noticeable positive changes over the past five years, says Konstantin Fursov, head of the Unit for Science and Technology Work Results Assessment at HSE ISSEK.

At the end of the ranking, as one of the least important development goals, there is space exploration (4%).