Ukrainians have a positive attitude towards OCU and UGCC, while UOC-MP shows a negative balance

From February 15 to February 27, 2020, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a national poll on public opinion regarding the largest Churches of Ukraine and their leaders.

Among the three largest Churches of Ukraine, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine enjoys the best attitude, as 60.6% of Ukrainians are positive about it, 5.4% are negative (balance of positive-negative attitude is + 55.2%). Moreover, in all regions the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has the highest indicators of popularity; in particular, in all regions, at least half of the population are positive about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (from 50% in the East to 69.6% in the West; the balance of relations varies from + 43.4% in the East to + 67.9% in the West).

It is followed by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, to which 35.2% of the population has a positive attitude, 6.5% are negative towards it (balance - 28.7%). N all regions, the Church has a positive balance of attitudes, although it enjoys the best attitude in the West (the balance in the West is + 46.9% versus + 13-28.4% in other regions)

Only in the case of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, a negative balance is observed - -2.2%. 25.7% of those polled are positive about this Church, 28% are negative. The church has a negative balance in the West (-19.4%), a near-zero balance in the Center (-4%) and in the East (+ 4%) and added balance in the South (+ 19.6%) and the Donbas (+ 20.1%).

Among the leaders of the main Churches, the best attitude is also observed in the case of the Epiphany: 38.4% are positive about it, negative - 5.7% (balance - + 32.7%). In all regions, Epiphany has the highest scores among the three leaders: the balance of  is + 48.attitudes is 48.3% in the West (against + 23.6% for Sviatoslav and -1.2% for Onufriy), + 32.5% in the Center (against + 20.9% for Sviatoslav and -6.9 % for Onufrii), + 23% in the South (against + 15.4% for Onufriy and + 15.2% for Sviatoslav), + 19.5% in the East (against + 15.5% for Sviatoslav and +10.2 % for Onufrii) and + 26.2% in the Donbas (against + 12.4% for Onufrii and + 5.2% for Sviatoslav).

27.4% of Ukrainians are positive about Sviatoslav, 3.8% are negative (balance - + 23.6%). The balance of attitude towards Svyatoslav in all regions is positive, although the highest figure is in the West (+ 40.9%, while in other regions the balance varies within + 5.2-20.9%).

20.9% of Ukrainians are positive about Onufriy, 22.1% are negative (balance is -1.2%). The balance of attitudes is rather negative in the West (-12.8%) and in the Center (-6.9%) and rather positive in the South (+ 15.4%), the East (+ 10.3%) and the Donbas (+ 12%, 4%).

The survey was conducted by CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews) based on a random sampling of mobile telephone numbers (with quota assignment when selecting respondents). 1223 respondents residing in all regions of Ukraine (except Crimea) were interviewed. The sample is representative of the Ukrainian population aged 18 and over.

In the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the survey was conducted only in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.

The statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95 and excluding the design effect) does not exceed: 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.9% for indicators close up to 10%, 1.3% - for indicators close to 5%, 0.6% - for indicators close to 1%.