Themes of the 2003 Parliamentary Elections

The survey charted Finnish citizens' views on the most important issues of the upcoming 2003 parliamentary elections. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of influencing, for example, the following issues: economic growth, government debt, unemployment, income disparity, gender equality, status of the poor, entrepreneurs and employees, power of labour market organisations, taxation, education, childcare, social security benefits, health care, retirement age, housing, regional disparities, funding of culture and sports, crime, drugs, prostitution, the EU, Finland's relationship with NATO and Russia, development aid, immigrants, environmental protection, civic activism, wages of MPs, and government composition. They also rated the certainty of them voting in the coming parliamentary elections. Respondents were asked which party they would vote for if the elections were held at that time, which party they voted for in the 2000 municipal elections and the 1999 parliamentary elections. Background variables included respondent's year of birth, gender, mother tongue, marital status, household composition, basic and vocational education, occupational group, employment sector, trade union membership, political orientation on the left-right axis, household's income, amount of mortgage and financial circumstances, accommodation type and housing tenure, province, region and type of municipality.