Study title

Welfare and Inequality in Finland 2020

Dataset ID Number

FSD3539

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3539

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Kainulainen, Sakari (Diaconia University of Applied Sciences)
• Kouvo, Antti (University of Eastern Finland)
• Kujala, Pietari (University of Turku)
• Niemelä, Mikko (University of Turku. Department of Social Research)
• Saari, Juho (Tampere University)

Abstract

The survey charted Finnish opinions on and experiences of welfare and inequality. The study was part of a project entitled Tackling Inequalities in Time of Austerity (TITA) funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland (decision numbers: 293103 and 314250), as well as the Inequalities, Interventions and a New Welfare State (INVEST) project funded by the Academy of Finland (decision number: 320162).

First, the respondents were asked about their life satisfaction, mood, ability to achieve goals, perceived status in society and trust in other people. Feelings of loneliness, depression, failure, and happiness in the previous 12 months were also charted.

Regarding income and personal finance, net income of the household and the ease of covering usual expenses with the income were surveyed. The respondents were asked whether they had received social assistance (minimum income scheme) in the previous year.

The respondents' sense of safety was examined with questions on how often they interacted with or helped their neighbours, how safe they felt it was to walk outside in their own neighbourhood or in the population centre of the municipality late at night, and whether they had recently been concerned about becoming the victim of certain crimes (e.g. burglary, assault, sexual harassment). The respondents' views on how safe Finland is in general were also investigated.

A number of statements about social assistance and social security were presented (e.g. all Finns are treated equally, the funding of social security is not sustainable, and that EU membership is a disadvantage to social security). Finally, the respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with statements about their own welfare and well-being, and how satisfied they were with their lives overall.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, household composition, household characteristics, housing tenure, type of accommodation, level of education, household income and expenses, and NUTS3 region of residence.

Keywords

quality of life; satisfaction; social disadvantage; social inequality; social security; social stratification; standard of living; well-being (health)

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Equality, inequality and social exclusion (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• General health and well-being (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social conditions and indicators (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Welfare and Inequality in Finland

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

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

Data Collector

• Suomen Kyselytutkimus

Data Producers

• University of Turku

Time Period Covered

2020

Collection Dates

2020-09-17 – 2020-12-31

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish-speaking people aged 18-79 living in mainland Finland

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified: Proportional

The sample was selected using proportional stratified sampling with the regions of residence as strata. The respondents were selected from each stratum using simple random sampling. The sampling frame was based on population information obtained from the Population Information System maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. The respondents' phone numbers were obtained by Suomen Asiakastieto, a partner of the Digital and Population Services Agency.

Collection Mode

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)

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

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

A weight variable was created to weight the sample to be representative of the population in terms of age and gender.

To prevent identification of respondents, some variables (e.g. household characteristics and household income) have been top-coded at FSD.

The data do not include responses to the open-ended variables T4MUU and T12MUU.

Weighting

The data include a weight variable (WEIGHT). The data have been weighted to correspond to the age and gender distributions of the population aged 18-79 in mainland Finland. The weighting was based on official statistics from Population according to age (18-79) and gender by area (mainland Finland) 2019 by Statistics Finland.

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

Kainulainen, Sakari (Diaconia University of Applied Sciences) & Kouvo, Antti (University of Eastern Finland) & Kujala, Pietari (University of Turku) & Niemelä, Mikko (University of Turku) & Saari, Juho (Tampere University): Welfare and Inequality in Finland 2020 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2022-06-14). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3539

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.

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.