The Barometers for Swedish-speaking Finns survey opinions, attitudes, habits and trends among the Swedish-speaking population of Finland. The first barometer was fielded in 2002, and since then the barometer has been conducted once every year. FSD collections cover data from 2002 to 2009 and from 2019 onwards.
Since 2019, the surveys targeted at the Swedish-speaking population of Finland have been conducted using a citizen panel consisting of Swedish-speaking Finns (Den finlandssvenska medborgarpanelen Barometern). The panel is administered by Åbo Akademi University's Social Science Research Institute and is part of the Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO) funded by the Research Council of Finland.
The survey charted the opinions of Swedish-speaking Finns on their linguistic identity, use of Swedish, politics, society, values and cohesion.
Respondents were first asked about their use of Swedish and Finnish in different contexts, such as at work and at home. They were then asked about the language atmosphere, for example, how they felt about using Swedish and being bilingual in different places, and about cohesion, for example, to what extent they felt they identified with different environments, countries and regions. Respondents were also asked about politics and democracy in general and more specifically about current political issues and voting in different elections. They were also asked about issues related to climate change and the environment. Respondents were asked about their confidence in the functioning of social institutions and in political decision-makers.
Background variables included the respondent's NUTS3 region of residence, broader region of recidence, age, gender, level of education, mother tongue, marital status, employment status, household size and number of children.
35 000 randomly selected Swedish-speaking Finns received an invitation by post to join the Citizen Panel of Swedish-speaking Finns in summer 2019. More than 4,700 people signed up to the panel. It was also possible to register for the panel themselves. An invitation to participate in this survey was sent to the panel members via email.