Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences

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European Social Survey

Aim and organisation of the survey. The European Social Survey (ESS) is a large-scale survey conducted every two years since 2002. Its objective is to produce data on the evolution of values, attitudes, and behaviour of residents at least 15 years old. It is a joint venture of around 30 European countries. In 2005, the survey was awarded the renowned ’Prix Descartes’ dedicated to excellent transnational collaborative research.

Initiated by the European Science Foundation, the ESS is coordinated by the Centre for Comparative Social Surveys at the City University of London. Its scientific board is directed by Max Kaase. Methodological decisions, survey topics, questionnaire developments (in English), and the archiving of the data are carried out by the central coordinating team (Core Scientific Team). The team was led by Roger Jowell until his passing, and by Rory Fitzgerald since January 2012. This work is supported by partners at different research centres:

Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS), Germany
Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD), Norway
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP), The Netherlands
ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Each participating European country conducts the survey on its own soil, according to the methodological rules established by the central ESS team. For Switzerland, the scientific board representative is Prof. Peter Farago, and the institution charged with carrying out the survey is FORS.

The project organisation, questionnaire development, and data archiving are financed by the European Commission and the European Science Foundation. Different funding organisations at the national level assure the material realisation of the survey in each country. In Switzerland, the Swiss National Science Foundation is the survey’s funder.

Under the direction of Dr. Michèle Ernst Staehli, FORS prepares the questionnaire translations from the source English version in the three national languages (French, German, and Italian), draws the sample of potential respondents in Switzerland, oversees the collection of data, and cleans and documents the data.

Methodology. The ESS aims for scientific rigor and methodological sophistication. Three aspects are particularly important. The possibility of comparing the results of different participating countries requires careful development of the base questionnaire. The questions are tested in many countries. Emphasis is placed equally on the quality of question translations. The ESS central team guides the conduct of translation at the national level. The protocol followed is the TRAPD (translation, review, adjudication, pretesting, and documentation) method.

Regional or international events can strongly affect attitudes and perceptions within surveys. An act of terrorism or an economic crisis can have a strong influence on responses. Thus, the ESS records media events during the course of the survey in order to allow future analysts of the data to understand the national context in which the questions were posed.

A key aspect of surveys is their precision, which depends directly on the sample. The central ESS team is supplemented by a group of specialists who advise and validate the national samples. In order to obtain the most representative sample of a population, the protocol prohibits quota samples and encourages obtaining the highest response rates possible. For this reason, the methodological procedures are constantly improved (e.g. intensive interviewer training). Since the third administration, Switzerland has obtained a response rate above 50 percent, which is exceptional for the country since the 1980s. Toward the goal of guaranteeing a high degree of data quality, the survey lasts slightly more than one hour on average, is administered face to face, and the number of surveys conducted by each interviewer is limited.

Summary table of methodological features of the European Social Survey

Target population	All individuals 15 and older who reside in Switzerland
People surveyed	Random sample, with minimum of 1,500 respondents
Mode	Face-to-face interviews, CAPI
Sample construction	2002-2004: Random sampling in three stages: Sample of postal codes drawn from each of the large regions of Switzerland Selection of a determinate number of households from each of the sampled postal codes Designation of one person within each household 2006-2008: Random sampling in two stages: Selection of a determinate number of households in each of the large regions of Switzerland (national frame of telephone numbers and addresses) Random designation of one person within each household/address Since 2010: Random sampling in one stage: Approved as an important national survey, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the ESS can obtain a sample of individuals drawn randomly from the sampling register of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, according to Art. 13c, para. 2, lett. d, order of 30th June 1993 regarding the implementation of federal statistical surveys.

Thematic contents. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: a central core administered with each survey, and a part including two or more modules on specific themes, repeated periodically. The central module aims to study the evolution of a large palette of sociological indicators. These include use of the media, degree of trust in the social environments, political participation and perception of institutions, subjective well-being, feelings about discrimination, attitudes toward exclusion, as well as national, ethnic, and religious identity. The central module also includes a part that allows the capture of information about the socio-demographic profile of the respondent. The specific themes vary with each administration of the ESS.

Summary table of the thematic content of the European Social Survey

Year	Central modules	Rotating modules	Additional modules
2002	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D Attitudes towards immigration und asylum E Citizenship, involvement and democracy	G Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions
2004	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D Opinions on health and care seeking E Economic morality: Market society and citizenship G Family, work and well-being	H Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions
2006	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D The timing of life: the organisation of the life course E Personal and social well-being	G Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions
2008	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D Welfare attitudes E Experiences and expressions of ageism	G Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions
2010	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D Trust in criminal justice G Family, work and well-being	H Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions
2012	A Public trust in government, politicians and other major institutions (e.g. media) B Political interest and participation C Well-being, social exclusion, religious allegiances F Demographic composition	D Personal and social well-being E Understanding and evaluating democracy	G Underlying moral, political and social values Test of questions

The data. The anonymised data of the ESS are freely available to researchers, students, or scientists in public administration, in the form of SAS or SPSS files, on the ESS website. New users must register before obtaining the data. The Swiss data are also available on the FORS Nesstar server. Only this server provides access to additional questions surveyed in Switzerland. Important information about the study, the data, variables and response frequencies are also available here. Whereas NESSTAR provides anonymised versions of the data, the FORS data service DARIS can be contacted to obtain ESS datasets that include additional variables of potential analytic interest (e.g. from methodological tests and geographical variables), after signing a restricted user contract.

Researchers are requested to respect the conditions of use, in particular to include correct citations in all eventual publications.

Secondary analysis can be done on the basis of data from all countries, for comparative purposes, or just based on data collected in a single country, like Switzerland. Comparison of data from several waves is also possible. It is important to use the supplied weights correctly. Between 2002 and 2008, the final selection of participants proceeded on the household level. This makes a design weight necessary.

It should be underscored that all publications that make reference to the data must be communicated to the Norwegian Social Science Data Services archive.

The national social science data archive FORS DARIS that preserves the ESS data for Switzerland.

The international archive that preserves the complete ESS data.

The site of the European Social Survey

For participants in the survey

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