The article presents results of theoretical and empirical study on interconnection between ideas about risk and characteristics about subjective well-being in representatives of various ethnic groups: Volga Germans and Russians (n = 170 people, 90 males and 80 females aged 18 to 55 y.o.). utilization of M. V. Sokolova’s «Scale of subjective well-being», mini-essays «My visions of risk» with the subsequent semantic analysis, methods of comparative and correlation analysis allowed to find out that visions of risk are interconnected with characteristics of subjective well-being and can be different depending on the ethnic background. The study shows that Volga Germans that have a low level of life satisfaction, more often define risk as a desire to achieve their goal; Volga German’s vision of risk as a sort of danger is positively correlated with the scale of health self-evaluation. Russians, that define risk as overcoming of their own strengths, evaluate the importance of their social behavior more highly. The applied aspect of problem under study can be realized in counseling practice of psychological services dealing with issues of ethno-psychological peculiarities, as well as the development of syllabi and programs for teaching such university courses as social psychology, psychology of risks, ethno-psychology.