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 of authorities, future expectations, trust, and the respondents' own state of mind. This collection round also included questions on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, living in a rural, urban or archipelago area, racism and issues that the Finnish government should address.
The ninth collection round of 2024 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 and well-being. 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. 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.
The next set of questions focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and national security in Finland. 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. The respondents were also asked whether they were concerned that Russia might take military action against Finland or try to interfere with the functioning of Finnish society. 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. 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.
Questions were also asked about racism, prevention of racism, equality between people of different ethnic backgrounds, and relations between different population groups in Finnish society. It was charted whether the respondents have heard of the Government's 'Action, not only words' campaign against racism. Finally, questions were asked about living in different areas of Finland and the attractiveness of different areas. The respondents were asked about their preferred place of residence and how long they had lived in the the countryside, town and archipelago areas.
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 ninth collection round of 2024 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 11 August and 10 October 2024, and for whom a current telephone number could be found. The sample size was 3,557 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.