84% of young Russians consider family their most important value.

      October 3, 2025, 18:15

      Society

      The non-profit organization "Institute for Demographic Development" conducted a survey dedicated to studying the values and attitudes of young people toward forming relationships. The survey results revealed current trends and differences in the understanding of interpersonal contacts related to gender, cultural and age aspects.

      The study was conducted from September 17 to 20 as part of the gathering of the World Youth Festival in Nizhny Novgorod. More than 500 participants of the gathering aged 18 to 35 from 104 Russian cities and 48 countries took part in the survey.

      Family remains the main life value for Russian youth — it was chosen by 84% of respondents. Important values include self-realization (45%), career (36%) and children (29%). Foreign peers also named family (82%), but emphasized education (48%), material goods (38%) and religion (24%) more.

      Key components of family for young Russians, unlike their foreign peers, are more often common goals and interests (61% among Russian youth and 46% among foreign youth), emotional closeness (57% and 49%), family traditions (34% and 22%), (33% and 25%).

      The study also showed that almost half of young people look for a partner during their studies or at work (47%), as well as among friends (23% among Russian youth and 18% among foreign youth). Peers from abroad are more likely to meet through apps and social networks (18% among foreign youth and 11% among Russian youth).

      To build happy couples, young people predominantly lack time (24%) as well as understanding and emotional support from a partner (32%). Young people are concerned about the absence of trust in the relationship (29%) and financial difficulties (16%).

      Speaking only about gender differences, without taking cultural features into account, men and women equally lack time for happy relationships (24%), but men more often lack money (21% of men and 14% of women), while women lack understanding and emotional support (33% of women and 28% of men).

      As the main obstacle to starting a relationship, 41% of respondents named the fear of being rejected and 31% named the lack of initiative from the opposite sex, and this is more important for women (33% of women and 26% of men). Another significant barrier women consider the absence of suitable places to meet people (13% of women and 8% of men). Men, for their part, primarily cite the fear of rejection (45% of men and 38% of women) and lack of time (21% of men and 16% of women).

      The survey also showed that among the main values for men are career (39% of men and 33% of women) and finances (37% of men and 28% of women), while for women travel (58% of women and 36% of men) and self-realization (47% of women and 32% of men) are important.

      Women predominantly named common goals and interests (62% of women and 43% of men), material well-being (41% of women and 22% of men), formal marriage (21% of women and 13% of men) and emotional closeness (57% of women and 49% of men) as key components of a family.

      For men, family is defined by the birth and upbringing of children (36% of men and 29% of women), as well as family traditions (34% of men and 30% of women).

      "The survey results became the basis for developing a new direction of work for the Institute for Demographic Development, which will create spaces and opportunities for meeting people. For this, a Telegram channel 'Based on Love' has already been created, which is intended to develop emotional literacy, support young people amid information noise and inspire them to engage in open communication. In the future we plan to hold offline events and online projects for comprehensive support of young people in important areas of life," noted the Institute's director Evgeny Zhuravlev.

      Recall that work to stabilize the demographic situation in the region is being carried out in accordance with the goals and objectives of the new national project "Family." By decision of the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Gleb Nikitin, the period from 2025 to 2030 was also declared the Region's Family Five-Year Period.

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