Application to the Finnish, Spanish and Portuguese data of the European Social Survey

Abstract

The European Social Survey (ESS) is designed to chart and explain the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of Europe’s diverse populations (Jowell et al 2003a&b). The survey is funded by the European Commission, the European Science Foundation, and academic funding bodies in each participating country. The data for the first round of the survey were collected during the years 2002 and 2003. These data cover 21 nations throughout Europe. Among the main requirements imposed on the survey were full coverage of the target population, high response rate (70%), no substitutions, and the same minimum effective sample size in the participating countries (neff = 1,500 or 800 where population is smaller than 2 million), and a minimum net sample size of nnet = 2,000. The ESS represents all persons aged 15 or over and resident within private households in each country, regardless of their nationality, citizenship, language or legal status (Hader et al 2003). The samples were selected by strict random probability methods at each stage and the respondents were interviewed face-to-face (60 minutes average duration). There were also self-administered questionnaires (20 minutes average duration) which were sent to selected people by post. Around one half of the interview questionnaire comprised “core” items and the other half “rotating” items. The self-administered questionnaires contained items designed specifically to help evaluate the reliability and validity of other items. The target response rate for the self-administered questionnaires was 90 percent. More detailed information on the sampling and on the data from the survey is available at the website of the ESS at www.europeansocialsurvey.com