Study title

Finnish National Election Study 2011: Telephone Interviews among Swedish-speaking Voters

Alternative Title

Riksdagsvalundersökning 2011: Telefonintervjuer bland svenskspråkiga väljare

Dataset ID Number

FSD2726

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2726
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd2726

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Grönlund, Kimmo (Åbo Akademi University. Social Science Research Institute)

Abstract

This survey charted the political views of eligible voters in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections. The data was collected in both Finnish and Swedish. This dataset contains the interviews in Swedish (see FSD2673 for the data on Finnish-speaking population). Questions in the interview are for the most part the same in both datasets; the questions about language policy differ somewhat and there are added questions about language for Swedish-speakers. The data is also available in Swedish.

The respondents' interest in politics and frequency of discussing political and societal matters were first investigated. Views were probed on whether one political party felt closer than the others and how close this party felt. The respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with several statements relating to Finnish politics and society (e.g. whether important national issues should be decided in a referendum more often and whether the second official language should be an obligatory subject at school).

Perceptions on the performance of the government and trust in different institutions and persons (e.g. the president, politicians, police) were examined. The final set of questions focused on the respondents' voting habits in the latest parliamentary elections. They were asked whether they had voted, when they had voted, to which party their candidate belonged, whether the party or candidate was more important when voting and how much certain reasons affected party choice.

The Swedish-speaking respondents were further asked whether the Swedish People's Party in Finland should foremost be a party with a language agenda, how often they attempted to receive service in Swedish, whether language played any role when voting and whether service in Swedish or a short distance to public services was more important.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's gender, year of birth, highest level of education, religiosity, economic activity and occupational status, household composition, economic activity, financial circumstances of family, language spoken at home, proficiency in Finnish, language spoken at work or studies, and region (NUTS3).

Keywords

constituencies; language policy; parliamentary candidates; parliamentary elections; political attitudes; political participation; political support; voting

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science 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

• TNS Gallup Finland

Time Period Covered

2011

Collection Dates

2011-04-18 – 2011-05-07

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish citizens who had the right to vote in the 2011 parliamentary elections (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability

A random sample drawn from the Finnish Population Register. Sample size was five times the target number of interviews, both for the Finnish-speaking (FSD2673) and the Swedish-speaking (FSD2726) population. In the interview stage, gender, age and area of residence quotas were formed to achieve a representative sample.

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: English, Swedish and Finnish.

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

Number of Cases and Variables

74 variables and 1000 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Related Datasets

FSD2673 Finnish National Election Study 2011: Telephone Interviews among Finnish-speaking Voters

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

FSD has no further information on the weight variable in the data.

Weighting

There is a weight variable [weight] 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

Grönlund, Kimmo (Åbo Akademi University): Finnish National Election Study 2011: Telephone Interviews among Swedish-speaking Voters [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-07-26). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2726

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

Gullblom, Emma (2016). Språkets betydelse för den finlandssvenska väljaren. Åbo: Åbo Akademi. Kandidatavhandling i statskunskap.