Citizens' Opinion (in Finnish) is a survey panel focusing on society and politics. Members of the panel participate in different online surveys a few times each year. The panel is administered by Åbo Akademi University's Social Science Research Institute and is part of the Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO) funded by the Academy of Finland. The recruiting of members for the panel began in 2019, and the panel currently has thousands of participants. The Citizens' Opinion panel offers possibilities to track developments in public opinion over time and makes it possible to react swiftly to current events and launch quick surveys that examine public opinion with a representative sample.
The survey charted the respondents' opinions and views related to the 2025 municipal and county elections, voting, and public services. The dataset includes data from four rounds of polling with the same respondents. The data were collected as part of the Citizens' Opinion panel, which is part of The Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO).
The survey charted respondents' views on the functioning of public services, and they were presented with various statements concerning services and decision-making in municipalities and wellbeing services counties. The survey included statements on democracy, the political system, and the role of citizens. Respondents' views were examined, for example, with regard to the functioning of democracy, the significance of referendums, political trust, and their own political understanding. Respondents were also asked to assess various statements on the functioning of public administration, freedom of expression, the right to protest, and compliance with the law in different situations. The statements and their response options were presented in partly different forms to different respondent groups. For example, a statement concerning election results was presented to some respondents in the form "If elections have been conducted fairly, the result should be respected regardless of the winner", while others were presented with the form "Election results do not need to be respected if the outcome is displeasing".
The respondents' voting behaviour was examined by asking respondents whether they had voted or intended to vote in the municipal and county elections. Those who had voted or intended to vote were asked which party or which party's candidate they voted for or intended to vote for. In addition, the survey explored which factors influenced the choice of party and candidate, or, alternatively, why the respondent decided not to vote.
Background variables included the respondent's age group, gender, level of education, mother tongue, political party preference, and region.
The sample comprised the entire Citizen Opinion Panel, excluding residents of Åland. At the start of the first data collection wave, the sample included nearly 7,000 participants. The majority of panel members were recruited using various probability sampling methods.
The data collection was carried out in four waves during the spring of 2025. The variable prefixes W1-W4 in the data indicate which wave each piece of data was collected in. The first survey, W1, was conducted between March 13 and March 31, 2025; the second survey, W2, was conducted between April 2 and April 11, 2025; the third survey, W3, was conducted on election day, April 13, 2025; and the fourth survey, W4, was conducted between April 14 and April 29, 2025.