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 on current issues. 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. This collection round also included questions on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and issues that the Finnish government should address.
The eighth collection round of 2023 surveyed the respondents' trust in other people and various institutions (e.g. the Finnish Government, the health care system, the media, and the Finnish Defence Forces). The respondents were asked to evaluate how fair or unfair they thought Finnish society was at present, and their state of mind was examined with questions on various matters relating to health, well-being, and their situation in life. The questions covered, for example, the respondents' own mental well-being, whether they were worried about the adequacy of their income, their confidence in their future, and experiences of stress. Additionally, the respondents were asked to evaluate whether an atmosphere of crisis prevailed amongst Finns and whether Finland's NATO membership had affected their sense of safety.
The respondents' views were investigated on which societal issues (e.g. promotion of climate action, national defence, poverty reduction, effective healthcare, operating conditions of businesses and investment opportunities) the Finnish government should focus on in the near future. Opinions on whether Finland's national debt should be reduced regardless of the resulting cuts in benefits and welfare it would entail for Finnish citizens and whether social security cuts can be considered acceptable if they provide an incentive to take up work and increase employment were also surveyed.
The next set of questions focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The respondents were asked how concerned they were about the crisis in Ukraine and its effects, and whether they were concerned that the war might expand beyond Ukraine. Opinions on the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and whether Finland should be ready to receive significant numbers of refugees from Ukraine if necessary were charted. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether the uncertainty caused by the crisis in Ukraine had impacted the respondents' consumer behaviour and whether the recent rise in interest rates had created financial difficulties for the respondents' households. The respondents were also asked whether they had noticed any cyber security issues or instances where purposefully misleading claims based on misinformation were spread on social media or online over the previous month.
Background variables included the language responded in, 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 eighth collection round of 2023 was formed of the target persons aged 15 to 74 living in mainland Finland who had responded to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey (rounds 3 and 5), Consumer Confidence Survey (round 2), or Finnish Travel Survey between 15 May and 12 June 2023, and for whom a current telephone number could be found. Additionally, the sample was supplemented with persons who had responded to Statistic Finland's Labour Force Survey (round 5) between 10 April and 11 May 2023. The sample size was 2,640 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. The surveys are conducted in the form of telephone or web-based data collection, where the same person is interviewed one to five times.
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.