Study title

Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour of South-Western Finns 1999

Dataset ID Number

FSD2022

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2022

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Kouvo, Antti (University of Turku. Department of Sociology)

Abstract

The survey is part of local Agenda 21 programme for southwestern Finland. The programme is a global plan of action for sustainable development. The study charted environmental behaviour of southwestern Finns and different forms of, preconditions for and obstacles to environmentally friendly action.

The respondents' actions and habits that affected the environment were studied with questions about traffic, consumption, nutrition, energy, garbage disposal and hobbies in nature. The respondents were asked distances to their workplace or school and shops as well as their mode of travel. They were also requested to identify various eco-labels. The respondents described their household's waste paper, glass and bio waste recycling practices and evaluated how environmentally friendly their consumer behaviour was.

The survey examined the respondents' concern regarding social problems relating to, for example, mass unemployment, inequality and the global economy. It also charted how concerned the respondents were about environmental problems at the global and local levels. The global problems included ozone depletion, genetic engineering and population growth, while the local ones included over-enrichment (eutrophication) of the Baltic Sea and lakes, demolition of old buildings and degradation of drinking water quality. The survey also covered the respondents' opinions on the difficulty of recycling, responsibility issues relating to the environmental impacts of products, environmental legislation, private motoring, industrial emissions, the relationship between economic growth and the environment, and the importance of consumption choices made by regular people.

The respondents were asked which party they would have voted for if the parliamentary elections had been held the following day. They were also asked to state whether they had supported some environmental group or organisation in the past five years. Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, basic and vocational education, municipality, type of region and accommodation, household size, number of household members aged under 15, and household's monthly income.

Keywords

attitudes; consumption; environmental conservation; environmental degradation; environmental quality; human behaviour; life styles; natural environment; social problems; sustainability; traffic

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Natural sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Environment and conservation (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

• Kouvo, Antti (University of Turku. Department of Sociology)

Data Producers

• University of Turku. Department of Sociology
• The Agenda Office of Southwest Finland

Time Period Covered

1999

Collection Dates

1999-05-01 – 1999-07-16

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

All southwestern municipalities

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged between 17 and 74 living in southwestern Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified

The survey was carried out in two waves. During the first wave in the autumn of 1998, 30 theme interviewes were conducted. Respondents were selected on the basis of their gender, occupation, age, region of residence and education. The interviews took from half an hour to an hour. The questionnaire was based on the interviews and they were also further analysed. In the second wave, a questionnaire was sent to 1,501 people in southwestern Finland. Respondents were randomly selected in five parts. The registry office could not perform the sample selection for all the municipalities at once but in groups of ten municipalities at a time. 1,016 questionnaires were returned and 1,004 of them were usable. Non-respondents were sent a reminder letter. Women were more active in responding than men.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

66.9

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: English and Finnish.

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

Number of Cases and Variables

145 variables and 1004 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The variable identifying municipality has been removed from the data.

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

Kouvo, Antti (University of Turku): Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour of South-Western Finns 1999 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-07-16). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2022

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

Kouvo, Antti (2000). Kestävä kehitys ja käyttäytyminen Varsinais-Suomessa. Turku: Varsinais-Suomen Agendatoimisto.

Kouvo, Antti (2001). Rationaalisuutta ja rutiineja: ympäristökäyttäytyminen Varsinais-Suomessa. Turku: Turun yliopisto. Sosiologian pro gradu -tutkielma.