The Finnish Voter Barometer surveys are commissioned by the major parties in the Parliament. In election years, other sponsors have also been involved. Up till 1988, the surveys were planned by Gallup Finland (TNS Gallup Ltd, Kantar) and the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki in collaboration with the political parties. After 1988, the planning has been in the hands of Gallup Finland and the parties.
From 1973 to 1990, the annual voter barometers were collected mainly with face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires, 1000-2000 interviews/barometer. Since 1991, the data have been collected with GallupChannel (PC's installed in respondents' homes). No surveys were conducted in 1985 and 1989.
Survey themes include voting behaviour, opinions on the government and the parties, and attitudes towards national political issues. In addition, respondents' economic expectations and political participation have often been studied, as well as their opinions on local politics, and the significance of the party leader to a party. Background variables have often included the social class of the respondent and the household head, economic activity of the household head, respondent's education, age, mother tongue, gender, party membership, political views, trade union membership, and family's annual income. There are also regional variables. Even though the variables are not always fully comparable from one survey to another, all kinds of comparisons over time are possible. The FSD collections cover data from 1973-2005.
The variables describe the following: image of the parties, party membership, interest in politics, membership in organisations, voting in the 1972 parliamentary and municipal elections, voting certainty, party choices, satisfaction with the government, necessity of new elections, forming of the cabinet, opinions on parties and politics, economic situation, agreement reached through collective bargaining, and the actions of political youth organisations. Some variables are connected with the interview situation and the social structure of the sample.
Gallup Finland's basic sample was used. It was drawn in September 1973 from Finland's population register, selecting individuals aged 12 or over, born on the 4th or 18th of any month, and living in any of the 300 municipalities sampled in the 1970 National Readership Survey. The survey sample group was selected with the help of two-stage stratified sampling, applying the Deming zone selection method: the basic sample was stratified by province, and then within each province by municipality group. The size of each stratum was proportional to the number of inhabitants aged 18 or over in each province or municipality group. Municipalities were classified into five groups on the basis of their level of industrialisation. To save travelling costs, the cluster sample was drawn from the survey sample. Clusters were defined using two criteria: the cluster's geographical correspondence with the voting district, and the size of the cluster. The number of clusters was set at 130 and the number of subjects in each cluster at 15. After the 130 clusters (i.e. voting districts) had been sampled, a sufficient number of subjects were drawn from Gallup Finland's basic sample group. Gross sample was 1,793, net sample 1,670, and the number of respondents 1,222.