Study title

Young People and European Parliament Elections 1999

Dataset ID Number

FSD1028

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1028
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd1028

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Nurmela, Sakari (Gallup Finland)
• Pehkonen, Juhani (Gallup Finland)

Abstract

The survey studied the attitudes of Finnish young people towards the European Union, and their participation in the European Parliamentary elections in June 1999.

The Advisory Council for Youth Affairs (NUORA) followed the election behaviour of Finnish young people under 30 years of age in the 1999 parliamentary elections, the 1999 European Parliamentary elections and the presidential elections of the year 2000. By monitoring the voting behaviour of the youth, NUORA wanted to pay attention to young people's low turnout in elections, and to find out which factors contributed to this lack of interest.

The survey covered topics such as the respondents' opinions on the functioning of democracy in Finland, in the European Union, and on the local level. The respondents' knowledge about the EU and the European Parliament, and their views on Finland's EU membership were surveyed. Further questions focused on their causes of concern, political and social activities, voting behaviour in the European Parliamentary elections, and reasons for abstaining from voting. Participation in voluntary organisations was studied. The respondents were asked how effective they considered certain political participation methods to be: voting in elections, contacting politicians or public officials, expressing opinions in the media, participating in demostrations, boycotting, participating in political parties' activities, etc. One question pertained to how certain the respondents were that they were going to vote in the forthcoming presidential elections in 2000. Finally, the respondents were asked whether they would give their consent to be contacted after the forthcoming presidential elections.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, basic and vocational education, economic activity, occupational group, housing tenure, household compostition, type of neighbourhood, income level, vocational education of the parents, and own, spouse's and parents' unemployment periods. The dataset also contains several regional variables.

Keywords

European Parliament elections; European Union; democracy; elections; political attitudes; political interest; unemployment; voting; voting behaviour; youth

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Youth (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Elections (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Gallup Finland

Data Producers

• Ministry of Education. The Advisory Council for Youth Affairs

Time Period Covered

1999

Collection Dates

1999

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Young people aged between 18 and 30 living in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability

665 Finnish young persons were interviewed. Earlier in the spring, 445 of them had participated in a similar type of survey after the parliamentary elections (FSD1027).

Collection Mode

Telephone interview

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

3.0

Related Datasets

FSD1027 Youth and Parliamentary Elections 1999

FSD1048 Young People and Presidential Elections 2000

FSD1247 Youth and Parliamentary Elections 2003

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The variable identifying municipality has been removed from the data, and the variable E14 (What is your opinion on Finland's membership in the European Union) is missing.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Nurmela, Sakari (Gallup Finland) & Pehkonen, Juhani (Gallup Finland): Young People and European Parliament Elections 1999 [dataset]. Version 3.0 (2006-03-14). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1028

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Suomen europarlamenttivaalit (2000). Toim. Pertti Pesonen. Tampere: Tampere University Press.

Nurmela, Sakari & Pehkonen, Juhani (1999). Nuoret ja europarlamenttivaalit 1999. Helsinki: Nuorisoasiain neuvottelukunta.