Eurobarometer Survey Series

The Eurobarometer (EB) survey series is a programme of cross-national and cross-temporal comparative social research conducted on behalf of the European Commission and is designed to monitor social and political attitudes. Since the early seventies nationally representative samples in all European Union (European Community) member countries are interviewed in each spring and each autumn. Since autumn 1990 (EB 34.1) separate supplementary surveys on special issues have been conducted in nearly every EB.

EB data files and documentation are stored at the Central Archive for Empirical Social Research (ZA) in Germany and at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in Michigan, USA.

ACCESS

UK residents registered with ESDS (see Registration help) and requiring data for not-for-profit purposes can order via Eurobarometer Survey Series datasets. Non-UK users should access the data through their own national archive, or direct from ZA. UK commercial users should contact ZA.

Some of the Eurobarometers are available to analyse and download online at ZA Online Study Catalogue (ZACAT). Data analysis and downloading require online registration with ZACAT and there is no restriction upon who can register.

Data supply: Data can be ordered on CD or via ftp/web download. One EB is approximately 10 Mb in size.

Data format: The data are obtained from ZA, and supplied to users, in SPSS format. A range of formats are available via ZACAT.

Embargoed data: Available editions of particular EB datasets may vary over time as the international organisations involved with the series complete work on them. Some variables may also be placed under embargo for a significant period of time. Details, including the expected date the embargo may be lifted, can be found on the ZA Eurobarometer embargo provisions web page.

User guides/questionnaires: All user guides are freely downloadable from the ZA Eurobarometer Study Profiles web page. ZA web pages also provide the facility to Search in codebooks and questionnaires.

Cost: If data are requested on portable media e.g. CD, handling and postage and packaging fees will apply. See Charges.

OTHER INFORMATION

Up-to-date information can be found on the ZA Eurobarometer Survey Series page providing information on survey contents, reports, news (including recent dataset releases), and the facility to search the codebooks and questionnaires. The order and downloads section provides a list of currently available datasets and embargo provisions and access to user guides. Information can also be found on enlargements to the EB survey series, including the Central and Eastern Eurobarometer Surveys, recently replaced by the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer Surveys, and the Flash Eurobarometer Surveys. Users may also be interested in the web site for the Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission.