Survey: Expect more millionaires and few marriages this year

Most Kenyans plan to start a businesses or invest in 2017.

An opinion poll commissioned by The Standard on Sunday indicates that securing a job is second on the list of what Kenyans want most in the New Year, followed by healthy living.

“With rising unemployment, Kenyans have opted for self-employment with 42.4 per cent planning to start a business in 2017 compared to 19.9 per cent who plan to get a job.

Other resolutions include healthy living at 18.6 per cent and buying property at 15.3 per cent,” says the survey by pollster Infotrak.

Other resolutions for 2017 include advancing their education, with 12.5 per cent of the respondents saying that is what they want to do.

Only two out of every 100 people plan to get married while just one person from a similar sample plan to stop drinking or partying. About six out of every 100 people plan to have a child.

Broken down by age, it is the population aged between 31 and 35 that has the most people who want to start a business in 2017. This is followed by those between 46 and 50 years while the third age group who mainly want to invest lies between ages 51 and 55.

The population aged between 18 and 25 years have the most people who do not plan to start any business, with only 35 per cent of those polled having investment plans. Ironically, this population also has the most people who want to get a job in 2017.

Those who want to exercise most fall between the ages of 46 and 50, followed by those above 61, and are probably retired.

Real estate developers should train their guns on the population aged between 51 and 55 years, which has more people who plan to buy property with about 25 people out of every 100 saying they plan to acquire property in 2017.

But this will come with challenges since most mortgage companies prefer the younger population and the newly employed who have a longer life to repay the loans in the cases where payments are not made using cash.

Most of those who plan to advance their education fall between the ages of 18 and 25 years, with 24 per cent of the population in this age bracket listing it among their needs for the New Year.

Ironically, it is also this population that has the most people who want to get married in 2017 with nine per cent of those interviewed listing marriage as their New Year resolution. This reduces as the ages increase. Most of those who want to stop drinking and have a child are aged between 26 and 30 years.

Broken down by levels of education, a majority of the population of people who want to start a business only have primary school education. The smallest percentage of those whose New Year resolution is to start a business have a university degree. These are the most people who will be looking for a job instead. More people from this group also want to advance their education.

Most investors will be in Nairobi and Eastern regions while the least are in North Eastern and western parts of the country. The population in North Eastern are the most concerned about healthy lifestyles with 58.8 per cent of them listing healthy living as a New Year resolution.

About 5.5 per cent of those surveyed had no education at all, 8.9 per cent had a university education while 20.9 per cent had only primary school education.

The rest had a college education (25.2 per cent) while the bulk (39.5 per cent) had a secondary education.