Finnish National Election Studies are nationally representative surveys conducted in connection with parliamentary elections in Finland. Data have been collected by the Election Study Consortium from the year 2003 onwards. For further information, see Finnish National Election Study Consortium site.
The data allow study of changes in public opinion and democracy over time. Some modules are repeated but each study also contains questions on current issues. Main themes include political participation, political attitudes, candidate and party choice, voting, and election campaigning.
This survey focused on the 2023 parliamentary elections in Finland. Main themes included political participation, political attitudes, party allegiance, candidate and party choice, and voting behaviour. Further topics included citizens' initiative, different ways of having a say in matters, and future prospects of Finland. Swedish-speaking population is over-represented in the data. The data were collected after the elections through three questionnaires, with each respondent answering only one of them. Although the questionnaires focus on different themes, there is also overlap between them. Certain issues - such as voting in the 2023 parliamentary elections, party choice and trust - were asked in each questionnaire. The first questionnaire (quF3875_1) contains Finland's contribution to the international CSES study (module 6). Data collection was funded by the Ministry of Justice.
The first questionnaire covered the respondents' interest in politics, attention paid to media coverage of the elections (including social media), satisfaction with the political system, economic situation, party preferences, political value orientations, discussions about politics with others, party identification and whether the respondents felt close to any party. The respondents' opinions on voting, democracy, decision-making and parties were surveyed. Satisfaction with the political system was charted by asking how much the respondent trusts various institutions, such as the president, political parties, parliament, government, the judiciary and the media. They were also asked about the successes of the cabinet led by prime minister Sanna Marin. The respondents' perceptions of their own financial situation and the Finnish economy were also charted. Further questions were asked about voting in the parliamentary elections. The respondents were asked about their opinions on Finnish parties and their chairs. They were also asked to place the parties on the left-right axis. In addition, the respondents placed themselves on the left-right axis and on the liberal-conservative scale. The respondents were asked about the functioning of democracy in Finland and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on, for example, Finland's unity.
The second questionnaire charted the respondents' interest in politics, attention paid to media coverage of the elections (including social media), social and political participation, trust, candidate and party choice, political knowledge, and political values and attitudes. The sources from which the respondents got relevant information for their voting choice were examined (e.g. family or friends, newspapers, TV, social media). The respondent's views on issues such as participation in politics and civic competence were surveyed. The respondents specified the forms of their social participation, such as whether they signed any citizens' initiatives or participated in political party or other civic organization activities. They were also asked whether people could be trusted. Non-voters were asked why they had not voted. Those who voted in the elections were asked in more detail which party and which candidate the respondent voted for. Finland's future direction was charted with attitudinal statements concerning, for example, multiculturalism, Christian values, climate change, state regulation and taxation.
The third questionnaire covered the respondents' interest in politics, trust, political knowledge, value orientations, political values and attitudes and whether the respondents felt close to any party. The respondents listed the three most important social problems that politicians should address. The respondents' opinions on current political issues such as the security threat from Russia, local agreement on terms and conditions of employment, cuts in public services and forest fellings were surveyd.
Background variables included, among others, the respondent's year of birth, gender, education, marital status, trade union membership, political party membership, economic activity and occupational status, employer type, religiosity and religious attendance, mother tongue, type of municipality of residence, gross annual household income, number of people in the household, number of children, country of birth, parents' country of birth (categorised), and electoral district.
The sample is stratified by mother tongue. Separate samples of 15,000 native speakers of Swedish and 18,000 native speakers of Finnish (including other minority languages) were drawn from the Finnish population register. The sample was stratified for each of the three questionnaires, so that 5,000 Swedish-speaking and 6,000 Finnish-speaking respondents were selected for each questionnaire, i.e. 11,000 persons per questionnaire. The total sample size of the data was 33,000.
Taloustutkimus approached respondents by letter. In the letter, each respondent was given a unique identifier for the online response or could choose to complete a paper form. Two reminders were sent to respondents, either on paper or by SMS. A total of 8,636 responses were received, of which 3,482 were online and 5,154 on paper. The date of response for the paper form is recorded in the data as the date of return of the form after postage. After data collection, the responses were combined into a single dataset. Weight factors were calculated at the same time.