Eurobarometer 81.5 (2014)

Since the early 1970s the European Commission´s Standard & Special Eurobarometer are regularly monitoring the public opinion in the European Union member countries. Principal investigators are the Directorate-General Communication and on occasion other departments of the European Commission or the European Parliament. Over time, candidate and accession countries were included in the Standard Eurobarometer Series. Selected questions or modules may not have been surveyed in each sample. Please consult the basic questionnaire for more information on country filter instructions or other questionnaire routing filters. In this study the following modules are included: 1. Social climate, 2. Science, research, and innovation.<br>Topics: 1. Social climate: life satisfaction; assessment of the current situation in selected fields (living area, health care provision in the country, the pension system, unemployment benefits, the cost of living in the country, relations in the country between people from different cultural or religious backgrounds or nationalities, the way inequalities and poverty are addressed in the country, affordability of energy and housing in the country, the way public administration runs, the situation of the national economy, the employment situation in the country, the personal job situation and the financial situation of the household); expectations for the next twelve months in these fields and comparison with the situation five years ago; estimated spread of poverty in the country; reasons for poverty; income differences between people are far too large; trust in people; providing jobs for the unemployed as a task of the national government or of private companies and markets in general; education should be totally free, even if this means lower quality versus tuition fees are necessary for providing high quality education, even if this means that some people won´t be able to afford it; preferred way of solving social and economic problems: guaranteed high level of health care, education and social spending, even if it means that taxes might increase versus taxes should be decreased even if it means a lower level of health care, education and social spending; responsibility of the national government versus people should take more responsibility to provide for themselves.

2. Science, research, and innovation: expected extent of impact of people´s actions and behaviour on selected areas (fight against climate change, protection of the environment, security of citizens, job creation, energy supply, health and medical care, protection of personal data, reduction of inequalities, adaption of society to an ageing population, availability and quality of food, transport and transport infrastructure, education and skills, quality of housing); expected extent of impact of science and technological innovation on these aforementioned areas; prioritized fields of future science and technological innovations; respondent has studied science or technology at school, at university, or college.

Demography: nationality; family situation; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; type of community; household size and household composition: number of persons in the household aged 15 years and older; number of children in household less 10 years and 10 to 14 years; possession of durable goods (entertainment electronics, Internet connection, possession of a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for); financial difficulties during the last year; self-rated social position (scale); Internet use (at home, at work, at school etc.); self-reported belonging to the working class, the middle class or the higher class of society; frequency of discussions about political matters on national, European and local level; own voice counts in the own country and in the EU (political influence); general direction things are going in the own country and in the EU.

Additionally coded was: size of locality; region.