European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS)

Summary

This survey does provide a broad overview of key domains relevant to quality of life. Among them, economic resources, health, employment and working conditions, education and training, families and households, community life and social participation, transport, and public safety and crime. The survey provides valuable information on the living conditions and wellbeing of Europeans. One of the drawbacks is the small sample size used. As a result, data can only reflect the views of relatively large social groups, and in addition, some categories might be insufficiently represented in unweighted samples. The EQLS offers a cross-sectional picture of households and their everyday life organisation. It entitles for the comparative analysis on gender, country and economic circumstances. In regard to the comparability of the results, changes in time should be interpreted cautiously since the perceptions, satisfactions and views of the interviewed might be affected by the socioeconomic conditions at the time of the survey. One of the strengths of the survey is that it allows for the analysis of participation in society, political activities, as well as social embeddedness. Even when the survey provides information on intergenerational relations and care, it does not allow for the analysis of the possible variations in living patterns.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection regular

Data gathering method
Face-to-face

Access to data

Conditions of access
Basic indicators published in reports. The data is free and available on the UK Data Service website. Most results are available on the Survey mapping tool on Eurofound’s website: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/smt/3eqls/index.EF.php?locale=EN Forthcoming analytical reports: • Subjective wellbeing in Europe • Social inequalities of life in Europe • Quality of society and public services in Europe • Trends in Quality of Life in Europe 2003-2012

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Microdata

Formats available
SPSS, STATA and TAB

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Wave 1 (2003): sample size was 26,000. Wave 2 (2007): data collected between September 2007 and February 2008. The sample size was over 35,000. Wave 3 (2012): data collected between September 2011 and February 2012. The sample size was 44,000.

First year of collection
2003

Stratification if applicable
Divided based by region and urbanisation, regions were divided based on NUTS II or an equivalent.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Wave 1 (2003): all EU member states were involved – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – plus 3 candidate countries – Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Wave 2 (2007): All EU member states were involved – all those from 2003 and also including Bulgaria and Romania – plus 4 candidate countries – Croatia, Macedonia, Norway and Turkey. Wave 3 (2012): All EU member states were involved, plus the candidate countries of Croatia, Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia and Turkey.

Age range
18+ residents in the EU for at least six months.

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
This survey does provide a very broad overview of various policy fields considered. Throughout the waves, the core of the survey remains robust, but new or emerging topics are included according to the context. Wave 3 questionnaire shared around 50 per cent of the content covered by Wave 2. The survey examines how people live and how they feel about their lives. This may allow for the study of subjective indicators of wellbeing and quality of life, life satisfaction, aspirations and happiness. In addition, the EQLS collects information on mental wellbeing, material deprivation, income, and social embeddedness. In terms of the aspects of life, the questionnaire collects information on satisfaction with health, accommodation, education, standard of living, family life, social life, and job.

Linkage

Standardisation
Education: ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) Occupation: ISCO 1 digit categories

Possibility of linkage among databases

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable

Breaks
There were variations in which organization carried out the survey: 1. Wave 1 was conducted by the Intomart GfK, which assigned the task of drawing random samples and conducting interviews to national institutions in each participating country. 2. Wave 2 was conducted by TNS-Opinion, which also assigned the random sampling and interviewing to national institutions. 3. Wave 3 was conducted by GfK Significant, which assigned the sampling and interviewing tasks to its partner institutions. Regarding stratification: Wave 2 (2007): Croatia, Macedonia, Norway and Turkey did not use NUTS II. Wave 3 (2012): Cyprus, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Croatia and Kosovo did not use NUTS II for regional stratification.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection

Governance

Contact information

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living & Working Conditions (Eurofound)
Wyattville Rd.
Dublin 18 Loughlinstown Ireland Phone: (+353-1) 20431 00
Email: postmaster(at)eurofound.europa.eu
Url: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/eqls/index.htm

Timeliness, transparency
As a general rule, datasets are made available no later than two years after fieldwork completion.