More than half of Ukrainians - 54.7% - believe the language issue in the country is irrelevant, that each person can speak the language he or she prefers and that a lot more important problems exist in the country, a poll of 1,200 respondents conducted by the Ukrainian Democratic Circle on November 12-18, 2009 found.
In the view of 14.7% of those polled, the language issue is an urgent problem that cannot be postponed and that calls for immediate resolution. Another 28.3% believe that, while the language issue needs to be resolved, this can be postponed, and 2.3% were undecided.
Nearly half of those polled – 41.2% – believe the Ukrainian language should be the only state language in the country, while the Russian language should have guarantees of free development. In the view of 35.8%, both the Russian and Ukrainian language should be state languages all over the country, and 20.4% want Ukrainian to be the only state language, while Russian may be given official status in the regions where a lot of Russian-speaking people live.
Another 2.6% were undecided.
