The Citizens' Pulse surveys, conducted by the Prime Minister's Office and Statistics Finland, examine Finnish views on current issues. The surveys explore views on the activity and communication of authorities, compliance with regulations, future expectations, and trust, as well as the respondents' own state of mind, health and well-being, livelihood, and concerns relating to everyday life. Central themes of the surveys include, for instance, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most questions are repeated in each survey. The group of respondents changes for each round. Data were first collected in the beginning of April 2020. The data archived at FSD have been collected from the beginning of 2021 onwards.
The Citizens' Pulse surveys examine Finnish attitudes and opinions in the context of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Main themes in the surveys include the activity and communication of authorities, compliance with regulations, future expectations, trust, and the respondents' own state of mind.
The tenth collection round of 2021 surveyed the respondents' opinions on the reliability of the information provided by various Finnish authorities (e.g. the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) and members of various groups (e.g. health care employees, researchers) on the coronavirus crisis. The respondents were asked to evaluate how fair or unfair they thought Finnish society was at present and how well Finnish authorities (including the Government, Ministries, and other authorities such as the police and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) had been prepared for epidemics such as COVID-19. The respondents' state of mind was examined with questions on various matters relating to health and well-being. The questions covered, for example, whether the respondents were worried about their own risk or the risk of people close to them contracting COVID-19, the availability of health care for them and people close to them for issues unrelated to COVID-19, and their own mental well-being. Additionally, the respondents' concerns were charted with questions regarding livelihood and everyday life (e.g. whether they were worried about the adequacy of their income or the income of people close to them, the uncertainty regarding how long the exceptional circumstances would last, and their children's schooling).
Next, the respondents' confidence in their future and experiences of stress were surveyed. The respondents were asked to evaluate whether an atmosphere of crisis prevailed amongst Finns. The availability and findability of relevant information on the coronavirus crisis was charted. Compliance with coronavirus restrictions was examined by asking the respondents whether they had followed the restrictions and recommendations set by authorities for preventing transmission of the virus, including maintaining safe distances, washing hands regularly, wearing a face mask, avoiding touching the eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands, using a hand sanitiser when it was available in public places, and minimising contacts with people outside immediate family and friends. Finally, the respondents' views on the coronavirus vaccine were surveyed, including whether they would be willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine for themselves or for their children.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, age group, NUTS3 region of residence, highest level of education, household composition, and perceived financial situation of household.
The sample for the ninth collection round of 2021 was formed of the target persons aged 15 to 74 living in mainland Finland who had responded to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, Consumer Confidence Survey, or Finnish Travel Survey between 27 May and 21 June 2021, and for whom a current telephone number could be found. The sample size was 2,686 persons. The persons included in the sample for Citizens' Pulse had expressed their willingness to respond to an additional survey when responding to the three surveys mentioned above. The samples for the Labour Force Survey, Consumer Confidence Survey and Finnish Travel Survey are drawn as stratified random samples from Statistics Finland's population database, which is based on the Central Population Register.
An invitation to participate in the study and a personal direct link to a Webropol survey were sent to the respondents by text message. The text message also contained a link to the Statistics Finland data collection webpage, where the participants were informed about, for instance, data protection. The data collection page includes a link to the privacy notice. Reminder messages were sent to those who had not yet responded two days after the first text message and on the last day of data collection. Most of the responses were received in the first three days after data collection began.