Study title

Finland 2004: Consumer Habits and Lifestyle

Dataset ID Number

FSD3170

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3170

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Erola, Jani (Turku School of Economics)
• Räsänen, Pekka (University of Turku)
• Toivonen, Timo (Turku School of Economics)

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• The data were gathered, processed, and stored by business students Laura Halenius and Veera Vasunta, as well as social sciences student Teemu Haapanen. Adjunct professor Terhi-Anna Wilska participated in planning the survey in the early stages.

Abstract

The survey studied the lifestyle and consumer habits of Finnish people. The respondents were asked to compare their lifestyle and consumer habits to the average consumer, and to give their opinions on consumption-related issues.

The respondents were asked to evaluate their life situation at the time of the survey, in the past, and in the future on several aspects of life, such as financial situation and general welfare. They were also asked to compare their expenditure and consumer behaviour (concerning e.g. food, housing, leisure activities, alcohol, travel) to those of the average consumer. Furthermore, the respondents were asked which things and household items they considered necessary and what they would have done had they had more money. The survey carried a set of attitudinal statements about consumption and lifestyle (e.g. "I often buy things that are on sale" or "Quality is more important to me than price").

Some questions covered on what grounds respondents make decisions on economical, family or work matters. Questions on social integration measured how closely the respondents felt that they were a part of their family, workplace, Finnish society, European Union etc. The respondents were also asked which generation and social class they most closely identified with.

Opinions on values were measured by asking the respondents to rate the importance of various things (e.g. self-respect, world peace, prosperity, independence). Furthermore, the respondents were asked about the safety and security of their own life, their relationships, European integration, Finnish society, and the world. The respondents' feelings of insecurity were measured by asking them about risks at the personal level (unemployment, gambling, casual sexual encounters, etc.), and at the level of society (different types of crime, terrorism, environmental problems, etc.).

The survey contained questions about the income, expenditure, savings and debts of the respondents and the household. Credit card use and possible bad credit were charted. The respondents were asked about their methods of coping when short of money (borrowing, reducing expenditure, gambling, etc.)

Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, marital status, household size, basic and vocational education, economic activity, occupation, party preference, experiences of unemployment, and financial circumstances as well as the number of children, occupations of the spouse and parents, and voting in elections.

Keywords

consumer goods; consumption; decision making; generations (age); household budgets; life styles; money; personal finance management; risk; values

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Consumption and consumer behaviour (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Consumer Habits and Lifestyle in Finland

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

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

Data Collector

• Turun School of Economics. Unit of Economic Sociology
• University of Turku. Department of Sociology

Time Period Covered

2004

Collection Dates

2004-08-16 – 2004-11-03

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged 18 - 75 who lived in Finland and spoke Finnish

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Simple random

6,000 people were randomly selected from a population register which was obtained from the city administrative court of Turku. Of the 6,000, 3,627 responded.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

61.8

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

275 variables and 3574 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The researchers used a weight to balance the representativeness of age and gender in the data. However, the data archived at the FSD do not contain this weight.

Variables year, v00pvm, and LOMAKE were removed from the data, because they were unnecessary for the final version. The variable "zip code" were removed. Open-ended variables v13, v19m v23, and v24 (one's own occupation and the occupations of spouse, father, and mother) were replaced with v13isco, v19isco, v23isco, and v24isco (occupations categorized according to Classification of Occupations 2010 by Statistics Finland).

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

Erola, Jani (Turku School of Economics) & Räsänen, Pekka (University of Turku) & Toivonen, Timo (Turku School of Economics): Finland 2004: Consumer Habits and Lifestyle [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2017-06-07). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3170

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 Materials

Erola, Jani & Räsänen, Pekka & Halenius, Laura & Vasunta, Veera & Haapanen, Teemu (2005). Aineistonkeruu ja tutkimusseloste sekä yhteiskunnan ja kulutuksen muutos 1999-2004. Tampere: Esa Print Tampere. Sarja Keskustelua ja raportteja: 5:2005.

Related Publications

Sarpila, Outi & Räsänen, Pekka & Erola, Jani & Kekki, Joonas & Pitkänen, Karoliina (2010). Suomi 2009. Tutkimusseloste ja aineistojen 1999-2009 vertailua. Working Papers in Economic Sociology. Turku: Turun yliopisto.

Sarpila, Outi (2007). Viideltä saunaan ja kuudelta kuorintaan? Miesten ulkonäöstä huolehtiminen ja ulkonäköön kuluttaminen 2000-luvun Suomessa. Turku: Turun kauppakorkeakoulu. Taloussosiologian pro gradu -tutkielma.

Mustonen, Pekka & Honkanen, Antti (2005). Tourism consumption - modern structures and postmodern lifestyle. In: Lifestyles and Social Change. Essays in Economic Sociology (eds. Terhi-Anna Wilska & Leena Haanpää). Turku: Turku School of Economics and Business Administration. Turku School of Economics and Business Administration Publications: Discussion and Working Papers 11:2005.

Purhonen, Semi & Gronow, Jukka & Rahkonen, Keijo (2009). Social differentiation of musical and literary taste patterns in Finland. Research on Finnish Society 2, 39-49.

Purhonen, Semi & Gronow, Jukka & Rahkonen, Keijo (2010). Nordic democracy of taste? Cultural omnivorousness in musical and literary taste preferences in Finland. Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts 38(3), 266-298.

Erola, Jani & Räsänen, Pekka & Halenius, Laura & Vasunta, Veera & Haapanen, Teemu (2005). Aineistonkeruu ja tutkimusseloste sekä yhteiskunnan ja kulutuksen muutos 1999-2004. Tampere: Esa Print Tampere. Sarja Keskustelua ja raportteja: 5:2005.

Koivula, Aki & Räsänen, Pekka & Sarpila, Outi (2015). WORKING PAPERS IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY: Suomi 2014 - kulutus ja elämäntapa: Tutkimusseloste ja aineistojen 1999-2014 vertailua. Turun yliopisto, sosiaalitieteiden laitos: Turku 2015.

Aro, Riikka & Wilska, Terhi-Anna (2014) Standard of living, consumption norms, and perceived necessities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34(9), 710-728.

Erola, Jani & Räsänen, Pekka & Halenius, Laura & Vasunta, Veera & Haapanen, Teemu (2005) Aineistonkeruu ja tutkimusseloste sekä yhteiskunnan ja kulutuksen muutos 1999-2004. Tampere: Esa Print Tampere. Sarja Keskustelua ja raportteja 5:2005.

Halenius, Laura (2008) Taloudelliset riskit suomalaisten arjessa. Talouteen liittyvät riskikokemukset ja niissä tapahtunut muutos vuosien 1999 ja 2004 välillä. Taloussosiologian Pro gradu -tutkielma. Turun kauppakorkeakoulu, Turku.

Kujanen, Hanna-Mari (2012) Korkeampi kulutus, vihreämpi kuluttaja? Taloussosiologian Pro gradu -tutkielma. Sosiaalitieteiden laitos. Turun yliopisto.

Kuoppamäki, Sanna-Mari & Wilska, Terhi-Anna & Taipale, Sakari (2017) Ageing and consumption in Finland: The effect of age and life course stage on ecological, economical and self-indulgent consumption among late middle-agers and young adults between 1999 and 2004. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 41(5), 457-464.

Räsänen, Pekka (2008) The aftermath of the ICT revolution? Media and communication technology preferences in Finland in 1999 and 2004. New Media Society 10(2), 225-245.

Räsänen, Pekka (2006) SUomi riskiyhteiskuntana 1999-2004. Futura 25:2, 5-16.

Räsänen, Pekka (2007) Miten porno ja väkivaltaviihde koetaan yhteiskunnallisina riskeinä Suomessa? Naistutkimus - Kvinnoforskning 20:3, 34-48.

Annunen, Janne (2009) Suomalaisen nykykuluttajan profiili ja vähittäiskaupan rakennemuutos. Taloussosiologian pro gradu -tutkielma, Turun kauppakorkeakoulu, Turku.

Koivula, Aki & Räsänen, Pekka & Sarpila, Outi (2014) Suomi 2014 - kulutus ja elämäntapa: Tutkimusseloste ja aineistojen 1999-2014 vertailua. Working papers in economic sociology. Turun yliopisto, Sosiaalitieteiden laitos.

Kujanen, Hanna & Räsänen, Pekka & Sarpila, Outi (2014) Korkeampi koulutus, vihreämpi kuluttaja? Ympäristövastuullisen kulutuksen tunnuspiirteet 1990-luvun lopulta 2010-luvun kynnykselle. Kulutustutkimus.Nyt 8:1, 4-22.

Kujanen, Hanna-Mari & Räsänen, Pekka & Sarpila, Outi (2013) Ovatko korkeasti koulutetut vihreämpiä kuluttajia? In Tiila Juuti, Pekka Räsänen & Outi Sarpila (toim.) Studies of Well-being and Lifestyle in Contemporary Finland. Working Papers in Economic Sociology (V). University of Turku, 107-129.

Nyrhinen, Jussi & Wilska, Terhi-Anna & Leppälä, Minna (2011) Tulevaisuuden kuluttaja: Erika 2020 -hankkeen aineistonkuvaus ja tutkimusraportti. Working paper, Jyväskylän yliopiston kauppakorkeakoulu.

Räsänen, Pekka (2008) Ammatilliseen asemaan ja työmarkkinavalmiuksiin liittyvät kokemukset. Tiedepolitiikka 42:2, 49-59.

Räsänen, Pekka (2010) Suomalaisten hyvinvointikokemukset 2004-2009. Teoksessa Heikki Ervasti, Susan Kuivalainen & Leo Nyqvist (toim.) Köyhyys, tulonjako ja eriarvoisuus. TCWR tutkimuksia nro 2. Turun yliopisto, 1-16.

Räsänen, Pekka (2005) Tieto- ja viihdekulutuksen muotoutuminen eri väestöryhmissä. Sosiologia 42:1, 19-34.

Räsänen, Pekka (2006) The Consumption Disparities in Information Society: Comparing the Traditional and Digital Divides in Finland. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 25:1-2, 48-62.

Wilska, Terhi-Anna & Kuoppamäki, Sanna-Mari (2017) Necessities to all? Teoksessa Sakari Taipale, Terhi-Anna Wilska & Chris Gilleard (toim.) Digital Technologies and Generational Identity: ICT Usage Across Life Course. Routledge, NY.

Sutinen, Sini (2019). Yhteiskuntaluokka ja kulutus. Suomalaisten eettinen kuluttaminen 1999-2014. Tampereen yliopisto. Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen kandidaatintutkielma.