Fear of death
10/11/2011“Death is what happens to others”.
I. Brodskiy
Results of the All-Russian representative survey conducted by the SREDA Service (fieldwork: POF-PENTA, sample 1,500 persons)
Less than a quarter of Russians frequently think about death; less than a third fears it.
Older people think about death significantly more often than younger people, but have less fear of it. Young people, by contrast, thinks of death less often, but fear it more.
The poor fear death more than the rich.
Among the Orthodox, the coming “last hour” is regularly on the minds of only 25%, but they tend to suffer from fear of death more often.
Do you find the following statement true or false? “I often think about death.”
Do you find the following statement true or false? “I am afraid of death.”
Less than a quarter of Russians (23%) regularly think about death.
More likely to think about death are citizens over 65 (42%). The youth, on the contrary, rarely thinks about the finite nature of life on earth (14% among 18-24 year olds), yet compared to other age groups they more often confess to fearing it.
It is interesting that Russians with an education below secondary school think about death more often (34%). Conversely, among respondents with higher education, this figure falls to about one in five respondents. However, people with university diplomas and those who ‘haven’t been to university’ fear death the same way.
Those most likely to think about death and confess to fearing it are the poorest of Russians. The most affluent, on the contrary, more often don’t think about death and are not afraid of it.
Death is more often thought about in cities with population of 50 to 250 thousand people and the major cities (one million and more), except for Moscow. Residents of these areas are more likely to say that they are afraid of death. Also rural residents speak of their fear of death.
Muscovites prefer not to think about the finiteness of life on earth and are less afraid of dying.
In terms of the distribution across the federal districts, death is more often thought of in the South and the North Caucasus federal districts. In Central Russia people think about the finiteness of life somewhat less. And in Siberia and the Far East, respondents often do not think about death and are not afraid of dying.
Respondents with large families think of death more often than on average (33%) and the childless ones, by contrast, more rarely (15%).
Those who describe themselves as unhappy, ill and superstitious more frequently think about death and fear it.
In line with the Russian average, only a quarter of the interviewed Orthodox Christians frequently think of death. The others, possibly, do not often pay attention to the words of the prayer «Lord, grant me <...> remembrance of death.» On the other hand, fear of death is reported by 38% of the Orthodox. Particularly frequently (51%), this is reported by those who also fall in the small group of both ‘churchgoer’ and ‘superstitious.’
