Penza, 31 August 2012. PenzaNews. Penza took 14th place in the rating “Index of Happiness of Russian Cities,” compiled by the monitoring agency NewsEffector in association with the Fund of Regional Studies “Regions of Russia.” Analysts developed a conditional index to identify where in the country the happiest people live. In the result of the research Penza received index 46, along with Smolensk, St. Petersburg, and Nalchik.

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The top lines of the rating were taken by Grozny, Tyumen, Kazan, Surgut, Krasnodar, Sochi, Nizhnevartovsk, Novorossiysk, Belgorod, Yaroslavl, and Kaliningrad.

According to the director of the monitoring agency NewsEffector Sergey Moroz, the first place of the capital of Chechnya was quite unexpected.

“This happened mainly due to the fact that in recent years Grozny has changed greatly for the better. Considering good environment and very high esteem of development dynamics made by the inhabitants, Grozny went ahead of other leaders of the list — Tyumen and Kazan,” clarified Sergey Moroz.

He also commented on the reasons of Moscow taking only 52 line in the list.

“Despite the high level of income and a good level of urban development, the capital showed poor performance on indicators such as the environment, sense of security and development dynamics of the city, which has a very negative effect on the sense of happiness,” said the director of the monitoring agency.

The survey involved 26,900 people of 100 Russian cities who responded to the following question: “Are you satisfied with your financial situation?,” “Are you satisfied with the ecological situation in the city?,” “Do you feel safe in the city?,” “Are you satisfied with the development dynamics of your city?,” “Are you satisfied with the level of urban development?,” and “Do you feel happy in your city?”