The Finnish Values and Everyday Life data series is a decades-long time series examining changes in Finnish values. The first data in the series were collected for the dissertation of Martti Puohiniemi in 1990-1995. The series is based on Shalom H. Schwartz's value theory, and the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) was used to measure values.
In addition to measuring values, the surveys have charted varying topical themes, such as Finnish consumer behaviour, media use, hobbies, leisure time, work motivation, attitudes towards advertising, eating habits, environmental issues, progress of digitalisation, internationalism, and the use of entertainment electronics, internet, and mobile phones. The comprehensive surveys enable the examination of connections between Finnish values and social trends, everyday phenomena, and consumer behaviour. Between 1999 and 2005, the research project had seven client companies: Finnish Road Safety Council, Local Government Pensions Institution, Sanoma Media Finland, Sinebrychoff, Finnish Red Cross, Veho, and Finnish Broadcasting Company. The studies have been funded by, among others, the Academy of Finland, Kone Foundation, and Limor Oy. Most of the data were collected by TNS Gallup (currently Kantar TNS). The data have been archived at FSD from the 1991 study onwards.
The survey charted Finnish everyday life, values, attitudes, and current phenomena.
First, the respondents were asked about their taste in music and literature, as well as how important they thought listening to music and reading books were. The respondents' values were examined with the 57-item Schwarz Value Survey (SVS), with the addition of the 'privacy' item.
Changes in society and concerns about the future were surveyed with several questions. The respondents were asked, for example, whether they thought there would be positive or negative developments in Finland's national security and economy in the next few years as well as how often they were concerned about issues such as homelessness, energy problems, and climate change.
The respondents' media use and digital gaming and gambling were also charted. Questions included, for example, which newspapers and magazines the respondents read and how often, which TV shows they found most interesting, and how often they watched TV or listened to the radio. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether they currently used or were planning on purchasing or acquiring various electronic devices or services (e.g. a laptop, smart watch, NFC, cloud services, or contactless payment services), how well they thought they could use a computer and a smartphone or mobile phone, and how often, on which devices and for what purposes they used the internet or social media.
The use of social media was further examined with questions on which social media services the respondents used, why they used them (e.g. to keep in touch with friends, to learn new things, to spend time in a fun way), and how often they followed social media events that were important to them. Digital gaming and gambling were also surveyed with questions on how often the respondents played certain types of digital games (e.g. mobile games, console games, computer games), how often they bought new games or paid to be able to play games, how much money they usually used on digital games in any given week, and which genres of games (e.g. action, adventure, strategy, lotteries, online poker) they enjoyed playing the most.
Next, the respondents' views on current phenomena were charted with various statements on matters such as new technology, following the news, Finland joining NATO, the internet, internationalism, and climate change. The statements included, for example, whether increasing government debt was wrong for future generations, politicians were genuinely interested in the life of an ordinary person, and life without social media would be miserable. The respondents were also asked whether any political parties, ideologies, or non-governmental or civic organisations advocated for issues that were important to them. Finally, the respondents' actions relating to environmental protection (e.g. whether they recycled, bought organic and locally grown food, and avoided using plastic bags) and their own health were examined.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, marital status, level of education, job title, economic activity and occupational status, type of municipal of residence, household size, number of children aged under 18 living in the household, income of the household, and job title of the second parent/guardian of the children. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether they had any pets.
The sample was formed based on Finland's population register, and the respondents were recruited through phone calls. The survey was available to the respondents either as an online questionnaire or a paper questionnaire to be returned by post. 54% of the respondents chose the online questionnaire and 46% the paper questionnaire. The completed questionnaires were read by optical character recognition. 1,351 responses were accepted. Of the original sample, 30% agreed to respond to the survey. After the survey had been distributed to those who had agreed to respond, the final response rate was 16% of the original sample size.