Flash Eurobarometer 269 (Intergenerational Solidarity)

Summary

The Flash Eurobarometer 269 is useful in understanding intergenerational relationships and how different generations view each other. Furthermore, it includes opinions about the role of public authorities in promoting intergenerational solidarity, as well as about pension systems and costs, and could therefore be highly relevant for policy making. This is also evident from the high number of policy related papers using the survey results. As a cross-country comparison is also possible, it could help policy makers identify best policy practices. Finally, the data is still fairly relevant since the survey was carried out in 2009, but since it was a flash Eurobarometer, it is not overly detailed in its information. It also does not allow for tracking changes over time.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection occasional

Data gathering method
Telephone
Face-to-face

Access to data

Conditions of access
Access provided through DBK (Datenbestandskatalog) and ZACAT (social science data portal provided by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), both of which provide free access to complete ISSP data and documentation materials online; users must register online to obtain access and the data is only available for scientific analysis carried out in academic research and teaching. Complete Eurobarometer collections on DVD-R can be ordered online subject to handling charges of 25 € per DVD-R product. The most recent data is labelled “pre-release”, which means the data is restricted because it has not been fully consolidated and checked (data from the fall of 2010 to 2012).

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Questionnaires, individual variable data, codebooks

Formats available
SPSS, STATA

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Data collected in March 2009 and released in April 2009 Sample size is slightly over 27,000 with a target sample size of 1,000 respondents from each participating country Participating countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Estonia, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Romania (EU-27).

First year of collection
2008 – first year of collection of Flash Eurobarometers was 2000

Stratification if applicable
N/A

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
N/A

Age range
15 and older

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The survey covers a great number of topics, but its main focus is on intergenerational relations. It examines how older people are viewed by society and by themselves, intergenerational transfers in terms of money and care, the role of government in promoting intergenerational solidarity, participation and contribution to society, health care services provision, and finally opinions about pension systems and expenditures.

Linkage

Standardisation
N/A

Possibility of linkage among databases
N/A

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
The data has been checked for completeness, missing and duplicated records, for illegal codes, and any other potential errors in the data. The data is then corrected and documented.

Breaks
The survey was carried out by Gallup Europe, however, various national organisations were responsible for conducting the interviews in the participating countries.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Appears to be no inconsistencies

Governance

Contact information
Dr. Meinhard Moschner, Eurobarometer Data Service
GESIS - Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8
50667 Köln Germany Phone: +49 (0221) 47694-460
Email: meinhard.moschner(at)gesis.org
Url: http://www.gesis.org/en/eurobarometer/home/

Timeliness, transparency
Data collected from March 20-24, 2009 and released in April 2009