SEVENTEEN years after the events of November 1989 that led to the fall of communism, less than a third of Slovaks feel that their standard of living has improved, while some 40 percent say it has worsened, according to a poll carried out by the Statistics Bureau on a sample of 1,300 adults at the beginning of November.
However, the poll also revealed that the number of people who say that their standard of living is better than before November 1989 has been rising since 1993, while the number who say their status has worsened has fallen.
The survey also looked at people's expectations of the changes that would take place after November 17, 1989, and whether they had been fulfilled.
The percentage of people who maintain that their expectations were fulfilled after November 1989 has not changed significantly since 1993, remaining at 5 percent. Meanwhile, the number of people who say that their expectations of the Velvet Revolution for Slovak society have not been fulfilled has fallen from more than 40 to 33 percent.
Today's standard of living is seen as better than before 1989 particularly by people aged 30-39 years (46 percent) and 40-49 years (43 percent), as well as by people with university degrees (56 percent), entrepreneurs (64 percent), employed people (44 percent), people from cities with populations over 100,000 (40 percent) and people living in Bratislava, Trnava and Košice regions (36 percent each).
In terms of political leanings, people who regard today's standard of living as better than before 1989 tend to support the opposition SDKÚ (56 percent) and KDH (40 percent) parties.
