Study title

Citizens' opinion: Polarisation of Political Attitudes 2021

Dataset ID Number

FSD4049

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4049
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4049

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Strandberg, Kim (Åbo Akademi University)
• Suuronen, Aleksi (Åbo Akademi University)
• Kawecki, Daniel (University of Helsinki)
• Kekkonen, Arto (University of Helsinki)

Abstract

The data were used to examine respondents' political attitudes and behaviour, identification with political parties, voting in the 2019 parliamentary elections, and attitudes towards people supporting different political parties. The data were collected as part of the Citizen Opinion Panel, which is part of the national infrastructure for measuring public opinion (The Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion, FIRIPO).

First, respondents were asked to place themselves on the value liberal-conservative and left-right scales and to assess how well various terms, such as patriotic and feminist, described them. Next, questions were asked about support for and opposition to different political parties, as well as voting in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Respondents were also asked whether there were other parties in these elections that they could have considered voting for, or that they would under no circumstances have voted for. In addition, the survey examined, for example, respondents' civic participation, opinions on various proposals concerning the future direction of Finland, time use related to the consumption of political and societal content, and how willing respondents would be to be friends or colleagues with people supporting different political parties.

The background variables of the data include region, gender, level of education, life situation, mother tongue, and age group.

Keywords

parliamentary elections; party identification; political attitudes; political ideologies; political participation; political parties; politics; social and political polarization; voting

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

FIRIPO Citizens' Opinion

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (D) available only by permission from the data depositor/creator.

Data Collector

• Citizens' Opinion

Funders

• Academy of Finland (345714)

Time Period Covered

2021

Collection Dates

2021-04-12 – 2021-05-02

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish citizens aged 18 and over living in Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Mixed probability and non-probability

The sample consisted of 2,000 participants from the Citizens' Opinion Panel (FIRIPO), most of whom were recruited using various probability sampling methods.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

78

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The survey questionnaire has not been preserved. For technical reasons, some of the question wordings in the data have had to be shortened. The full-length question wordings are available in Aila in the Variables section of the dataset and in the data guide provided at the time of data download.

Variables MED_1_3 and MED_3_3 contain an incorrect label 'SanoMieshdet” resulting from an automatic translation, which should read 'Sanomalehdet” (Newspapers). The same error was likely present in the original questionnaire, which has not been preserved. The label was not corrected in the archived data, as respondents most likely answered a questionnaire that included the erroneous translation.

For identification risk reasons, the researcher has anonymised the data by grouping the municipalities in the municipality variable into regions. For the same reason, all open-ended responses have been removed.

At the Finnish Social Science Data Archive, the data have been further anonymised by removing the year-of-birth variable.

Weighting

The data include a weight variable (weight) that adjusts the data to be representative of the sample with respect to gender, level of education, and age group.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Strandberg, Kim (Åbo Akademi University) & Suuronen, Aleksi (Åbo Akademi University) & Kawecki, Daniel (University of Helsinki) & Kekkonen, Arto (University of Helsinki): Citizens' opinion: Polarisation of Political Attitudes 2021 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2026-04-06). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4049; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4049

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Special Terms and Conditions for Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Kekkonen, A., Suuronen, A., Kawecki, D., & Strandberg, K. (2022). Puzzles in affective polarization research: party attitudes, partisan social distance, and multiple party identification. Frontiers in Political Science, 4, Artikkeli 920567. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.920567