European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication
European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication
Rue de la Loi 56 / Wetstraat 56
1000 Bruxelles / Brussel
Postal address: building L56 - 1049 - Bruxelles / Brussel Belgique
08/02/2019
Eurobarometers are public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission by TNS Opinion. The main Eurobarometer surveys are the Standard Eurobarometers, which collects cross-country longitudinal data on – broadly – the same questions. Aside from the Standard Eurobarometer survey, Special Eurobarometer surveys are based on in-depth thematical studies carried out for various services of the European Commission or other EU Institutions and integrated in Standard Eurobarometer's polling waves.
The following specifications apply to individual Special Eurobarometer surveys.
Special Eurobarometer 449 / Wave 85.3:
The survey assessed the perceptions of EU citizens about gender-based violence including prevalence of domestic violence, most frequent places of violence against women, prevalence of sexual harassment and whether a range of acts of gender-based violence are wrong and are, or should be, illegal. Several of the questions in this survey were included in an earlier Eurobarometer from 2010 about violence against women (Special Eurobarometer 344 / Wave 73.2). Trend results from these questions are also discussed in this report. 27,818 EU citizens from different social and demographic categories took part in the survey. The fieldwork was conducted from 4 June to 13 June 2016 and the official Special Report was published in November 2016.
Special Eurobarometer 437 / Wave 83.4:
The survey examined discrimination in the European Union. Three previous Eurobarometer surveys examining discrimination have been conducted in the past: in 2006, 2009 and 2012. The 2015 survey repeats several questions asked in previous years to provide insight into the evolution of perceptions, attitudes, knowledge and awareness of discrimination in the European Union. A number of new questions have been added to further explore social acceptance of some groups at risk of discrimination. For example, this survey assessed perceptions and attitudes regarding gender discrimination in positions of power, in recruitment practices, the workplace etc. 27,718 respondents from different social and demographic groups were interviewed for this survey. The fieldwork was conducted from 30 May to 8 June 2015 and the official Special Report was published in October 2015.
Special Eurobarometer 428 / Wave 82.4:
This survey assessed the perception of, attitude towards, and political priorities regarding gender equality and stereotypes, violence against women, and fields of inequality in the European Union. For this survey 27,801 respondents from different social and demographic groups were interviewed. The fieldwork was conducted from 29 November to 9 December 2014 and the official Special Report was published in March 2015.
Special Eurobarometer 344 / Wave 73.2:
For this survey 27,304 citizens in the 27 countries of the European Union (following the 2004/2007 enlargement but prior to accession of Croatia in 2013) plus EFTA country Iceland were queried on their awareness of and proximity to domestic violence, as well as their perception of domestic violence, including some potential reasons for its prevalence. In addition, respondents identified whether certain institutions, organizations, or people should come to the aid of women experiencing domestic violence. They also evaluated the usefulness of certain resources to combat domestic violence, and were asked whether or not they believed legislative action should be taken on domestic violence. The fieldwork was conducted from 26 February to 17 March 2010 and the official Special Report was published in September 2010.
Further information, including downloadable reports and other publications can also be found on Eurobarometer webpages.
Each Eurobarometer survey uses predefined categories according to which responses are coded.
Special Eurobarometers 449, 437, 428 and 344 results are weighted in a post-stratification process taking into account sex, age and region NUTS II. The NUTS classification (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) is a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the EU for the purpose of:
While results from the four Special Eurobarometers are not disseminated by NUTS II region, they do represent the whole territory of the countries surveyed according to the Eurostat NUTS regions or equivalent.
For more details on the classification, please visit: Eurostat NUTS- Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics.
Not applicable.
Main statistical concepts including possible answer categories and standard variables such as time period (year), country, sex (women, men, total) are listed in the basic bilingual questionnaires for Special Eurobarometers 449, 437, 428 and 344:
Special Eurobarometer 449 - Basic bilingual questionnaire
Special Eurobarometer 437 - Basic bilingual questionnaire
Special Eurobarometer 428 - Basic bilingual questionnaire
Special Eurobarometer 344 - Basic bilingual questionnaire
Proportion of respondents.
The survey covers the population of the European Union Member States, national and non-national residents aged 15 years and over.
The regular sample size (in the sense of completed interviews) is 1000 respondents per country, except the United Kingdom with separate samples for Great Britain (1000) and Northern Ireland (300), Germany with separate samples for the Eastern (500) and the Western part (1000), as well as Luxembourg, Cyprus (Republic), and Malta with 500 interviews each.
Actual number of interviews conducted in each country/ region for Special Eurobarometers 449, 437, 428 and 344 are specified in the respective variable reports.
Data included in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database based on Special Eurobarometers 449, 437, 428 and 344 cover the following geographical areas:
Geographical coverage in the four Special Eurobarometers differ from data coverage in EIGE's Gender Statistics database. Data for additional countries (i.e. the UK and EFTA country, Iceland) can be found in individual Special Reports.
Data derived from the survey reflects the most current opinion and perception of the citizens of the European Union Member States on the specified topic.
Time coverage for fieldwork is as follows:
Not applicable.
Indicators are expressed as percentages of all respondents that chose a particular answer to each question. The breakdowns are given by sex and, where relevant, other respondent characteristics.
The Special Eurobarometer 449, 437, 428 and 344 surveys are non-recurrent. The measured observation refers to the current situation, refenced by the year of publication, within the geographic area covered. The following exceptions apply:
No legal acts are applicable. 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. This survey was requested by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is responsible for data archiving, storage and dissemination.
Provision of data and documents via GESIS is governed by the following access categories:
Data and document for Special Eurobarometers 449, 437, 428 and 344 via GESIS are released for everybody (Category 0).
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
No administrative information such as names or addresses that would allow direct identification, is published. Anonymity is preserved in the aggregate data.
There is no scheduled calendar release date for Special Eurobarometers.
There is no scheduled calendar release date for Special Eurobarometers.
All Eurobarometer data is available free of charge for non-commercial use and can be downloaded from GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (archive release data set and DDI documentation): http://www.gesis.org/
The data on special topics are released after the publication of the related full official Special Report. At latest and regardless of the report publication, the data are expected to be released two years after fieldwork is completed.
There is no fixed frequency for dissemination. Special Eurobarometer surveys are non-recurrent. Statistics derived from the surveys are consolidated into an official Special Report for dissemination on the European Commission's Eurobarometer webpage.
No regular news release.
Special Eurobarometer reports are based on in-depth thematic studies carried out for various services of the European Commission or other EU Institutions and integrated in the Standard Eurobarometer's polling waves. There are no regular publication intervals for these reports.
The following exception exists with regards to data included in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database:
Includes several questions from a 2010 Eurobarometer about violence against women (Special Eurobarometer 344 / Wave 73.2). Trend results from these questions are discussed in the Special Report for Special Eurobarometer 449.
The full list of Standard, Special, Flash and Qualitative Eurobarometer reports can be found at the European Commission's website: http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/General/index
Eurobarometer survey data is also visualised on Eurobarometer interactive.
All Standard and Special Eurobarometer data files such as (questionnaires, variable reports, etc.) are available at GESIS (http://zacat.gesis.org), CESSDA Database (Council of European Social Science Data Archives) and the ICPSR membership network (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research), once the archive processing is completed and their release is confirmed.
All Eurobarometer microdata can be downloaded free of charge through the GESIS data catalogue (https://www.gesis.org/dbk). Detailed information on Eurobarometer microdata access procedures and conditions is available in the context of the Eurobarometer Data Service website.
Not applicable.
Special Eurobarometers follow a standard method of data collection and analysis. However, there are differences in content such as sample size and number of Member States included (See section 3.6).
Variable Reports are produced by GESIS for each Special Eurobarometer with a detailed methodology section.
Information on all aspects of data quality is accessible online via GESIS Variable Reports.
In all countries, fieldwork was conducted on the basis of detailed and uniform instructions. A multi-stage random sampling design including the closest birthday method, was used to eliminate possible sample selection bias.
Data was weighted via post-stratification and population size weights. The post-stratification weights used demographic variables such as age-group, gender and education to reduce the sampling error and potential non-response bias. In addition, population size weights ensured each country including those with lower sample sizes (e.g. Great Britain and Northern Ireland, East and West Germany) were represented proportionally within their respective population size or reflecting ascension to the European Union.
Quality checks were undertaken for completeness of data, missing data and duplicate records, for illegal codes and for consistency of response patterns and question routing. Errors discovered by quality checks were documented or corrected after consulting related documentation (e.g. tabular reports) or the data provider. Indices and other derived summary variables were also checked and corrected as necessary. Complete machine-readable DDI-XML compliant documentation was created for this dataset by GESIS.
Back-translation procedures were applied for controlling semantic equivalence across languages. Proof reading and back-translation were performed by independent translators, following central checks, local changes and final improvement through TNS opinion. Final results are checked for completeness, technical integrity and basic consistency of data and documentation.
No formal quality assessment has been run. However, overall, the Special Eurobarometer surveys exhibit high-quality standards. Quality assurance measures have been implemented at each step, starting with questionnaire design. Proof reading at various levels and back-translation procedure was applied to ensure greater level of translation accuracy, especially in regard to semantics. In addition, random probability sampling has been utilised to minimise bias and two weighting factors were adopted to eliminate sampling error. Most importantly, a coherent methodology adopted for all Special Eurobarometer surveys ensure unwanted bias or error is minimised as well as allow comparability of data across time and countries.
However, a design weight which would adjust for unequal selection probabilities (depending on the household size) is not made available, with some potential for sample selection bias.
The Special Eurobarometer surveys cover a wide range of issues. This helps policy-makers gauge public opinions and attitudes on key topics. For example:
No user satisfaction surveys are carried out.
Please refer to section 3.7 on data coverage.
A design weight which would adjust for unequal selection probabilities (depending on the household size) is not made available, with potential for sample selection bias. However, two weighting variables have been used to reduce sampling error and potential non-response bias (explained in section 13.2).
The post-stratification weights used demographic variables such as age group, gender and education to reduce the sampling error and potential non-response bias. In addition, population size weights ensured each country including those with lower sample sizes (e.g. Great Britain and Northern Ireland, East and West Germany) were represented proportionally within their respective population size or reflecting ascension to the European Union.
Not available.
Official reports of Special Eurobarometer are published on the European Commission Eurobarometer webpage, at the following interval:
The data on special topics are released after the publication of the related full official Special Report. At latest and regardless of the report publication, the data are expected to be released two years after fieldwork.
Coherence is a main priority in the Special Eurobarometer and therefore the variables have been implemented in a harmonised way based on detailed and uniform instructions. In addition, a common master questionnaire and back-translation ensured semantic, conceptual and normative equivalence across all surveyed countries.
Topics for Special Eurobarometers depend on requests by the respectively responsible EC Directorate General. Hence, questions are not generally repeated. However, one exception applies (in relation to Special Eurobarometer data included in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database):
Not applicable.
Internal coherence of the data (e.g. across countries) is ensured through careful application of a common methodology and validation of data at various stages of data analysis.
Data collection is co-ordinated by TNS opinion for Special Eurobarometer 449, 437, 428 and 344 and carried out through its network of national institutes, at the request of the European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, and of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication.
There is no burden on Member States.
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Special Eurobarometer 449, 437, 428 and 344 data are survey data. For each survey a random sample of participants have been interviewed face-to-face or via CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) in countries where this technique was available.
Non-recurrent.
In all Member States, fieldwork was conducted on the basis of detailed and uniform instructions. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in people´s home in the respective national language. Data was captured via CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) in countries where this technique was available. A master questionnaire was developed in English and French for all four Special Eurobarometers. The master questionnaire was translated into other languages by the firms responsible for interviewing in each country. Multi-language questionnaires were also applied as appropriate (in countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Malta).
See section 11.1 on quality assurance.
Data collected from individual respondents are aggregated and broken down by main characteristics only. Data included in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database is broken down by gender.
Please refer to section 13.2 on the application of post-stratification weights.
None.