Data project

Special Eurobarometer 321: Poverty and Social Exclusion; Wave 72.1: Poverty and Social Exclusion, Social Services, Climate Change, and the National Economic Situation and Statistics, August-September 2009

Special Eurobarometer 321: Poverty and Social Exclusion; Wave 72.1: Poverty and Social Exclusion, Social Services, Climate Change, and the National Economic Situation and Statistics, August-September 2009

Summary

The greatest strength of this Special Eurobarometer is its relation to one of the ‘Europe 2020’ Strategy goals, namely to reduce poverty. Researchers who used these data suggest that the survey has a great advantage of harmonised EU-27 coverage, as well as a sufficiently big number of variables, which allows for a fairly comprehensive picture on how Europeans think about income inequalities. Furthermore, because it provides information regarding opinions about policy actions, it could serve as a good complement to objective measures for policy making. Finally, in view of the fact that a slightly similar Eurobarometer survey was carried out in 2007, it is possible to track changes over time. Yet, it should be noted that the 2007 and 2009 Eurobarometers are not fully identical and thus comparable.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection occasional

Data gathering method
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, tables, metadata, individual variable data, codebooks

Formats available
SPSS, STATA

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Data collected from August 28th to September 17th 2009 Sample size of 26,719 Target sample size of 1,000 per country with the following exceptions: the United Kingdom was divided between Great Britain (1,000) and Northern Ireland (300); Germany was split between West (1,000) and East (500); Luxembourg, Malta, and each side of Cyprus had a target of 500

First year of collection
The first Special Eurobarometer survey was conducted in 1970, but this particular survey was first carried out in 2009

Stratification if applicable
Based on population size, population density and urbanisation

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Used NUTS II to divide the regional units All 27 EU member states participated Division made between EU-15 and NMS-12

Age range
15+

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
This Eurobarometer’s main focus is on well-being. It is a fairly in-depth survey about poverty, exclusion in social and financial terms, access to social services, and opinions about policy actions for social and financial assistance. With regard to poverty, the survey provides data about causes of poverty, self-perceived poverty and homelessness, availability and costs of housing, and risk of poverty. The survey also provides data about life satisfaction, optimism and perceptions of being left out of society. With regard to social services and intergenerational relations, the survey provides data about long-term care and childcare.

Linkage

Standardisation
N/A

Possibility of linkage among databases
N/A

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Any unanswered questions have been marked and noted

Breaks
The survey was organised by the TNS Social Service and partner institutes were responsible for carrying out the surveys in their respective countries. Surveys were translated from English and French into the different countries’ national languages.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
No Information about coding is provided.

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 between August 28th and September 17th, 2009, the report was released in February 2010.