Information technology - Media, communication and language
International micro data - Major studies
Youth - Social stratification and groupings
Political behaviour and attitudes - Politics
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and culture
The Eurobarometer (EB) survey series is a unique programme of cross-national and cross-temporal comparative social science research. Since the early seventies representative national samples in all European Union (EU) (formerly the European Community (EC)) member states have been simultaneously interviewed in the spring and autumn of each year. Starting with EB 34.1 (autumn 1990), separate supplementary surveys on special issues have been conducted under almost every EB number. The EB is designed to provide regular monitoring of public social and political attitudes in the EU through specific trend questions. More information about the series may be found on the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Data Archive for the Social Sciences (GESIS) Eurobarometer Survey Series web pages. GESIS was formed in 2007 when three independent institutes merged (Social Science Information Centre (IZ) in Bonn, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA), and Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim). Users should note that earlier EBs are available from GESIS.
Background
Work on European survey series began in early 1970, when the Commission of the European Community sponsored simultaneous surveys of the EC. These surveys were designed to measure public awareness of, and attitudes toward, the Common Market and other EC institutions, in complementary fashion. They also probed the goals given top priority for each respondent's nation. These concerns have remained a central part of the EC's research efforts - which were carried forward in the summer of 1971 with another six-nation survey that gave special attention to agricultural problems. The nine EC member countries were then surveyed again on the same topic areas in September 1973. After 1973, the surveys took on a somewhat broader scope in content as well as in geographical coverage, with measures of subjective satisfaction and the perceived quality of life becoming standard features of the EC public opinion surveys.
Over time, the member states of the EC/EU have increased in number, and the coverage of the EB surveys has widened accordingly. In 1974, nine countries were surveyed: France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg. Greece has been included since the autumn 1980 survey (EB 14) onwards, Portugal and Spain since autumn 1985 (EB 24), the former German Democratic Republic since autumn 1990 (EB 34), Finland since the spring of 1993 (EB 39), and Sweden and Austria since the autumn of 1994 (EB 42). Norway has been included in some surveys since 1991, from EB 36 onwards. In 2004, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU, and in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania (some of these countries participated in the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer survey series (see under GN 33343) before full accession). Candidate countries of Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Iceland have also been included in selected surveys. Some surveys are also conducted in Turkey, and in the Turkish Cypriot Community (Northern Cyprus).
The Eurobarometer public opinion surveys are conducted on behalf of and co-ordinated by the European Commission, DG Press and Communication - Opinion Polls Sector (European Commission Public Opinion Analysis). Special topic modules are carried out at the request of the responsible EU Directorate General.
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This round of EB surveys diverged from a focus on standard measures. During the fieldwork for Eurobarometer 55.1: Globalization and Humanitarian Aid, April - May, 2001 (GESIS 3507, ICPSR 3361 and UK Data Archive SN 4473), an oversample of young respondents, aged 15-24, was added to the basic sample in order to obtain a total of at least 600 young respondents per country. An additional set of questions was administered to these young respondents eliciting responses on a number of topics, including the meaning and the importance of the EU, areas in which the EU should be more or less active, sources of information about the EU, important aspects of society making participation of young people in society easier, suggestions for better integration of minorities into society, and opinions on foreigners living in the respondent's country. These young respondents were also asked about their leisure activities and organisations to which they belonged, their use of the Internet, use of computers and other electronic equipment (e.g., PC, CD, DVD, mobile phone), languages they spoke and would like to learn, countries they had visited in the last two years and reasons for the visits, employment considerations and money sources, and problems they would have if they wanted to study or work abroad. Respondents not underage were asked if they favoured or were against a number of issues such as euthanasia, the death penalty, compulsory AIDS testing, premarital sex, cloning, etc. Demographic and other background information collected includes respondent's age, gender, nationality, marital status, left-right political self-placement, occupation, age at completion of education, household income, region of residence, and type and size of community.
For a comparable survey in this series, see Eurobarometer 47.2OVR: Young Europeans, April - June, 1997 (GESIS 2938, ICPSR 2091 and UK Data Archive SN 4195).
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Main Topics:
The special topic covered in this round of surveys was Young European Citizens.
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