Attitude to the Census (April May 1987)

Attitude of the German population to the census before census day, 31
May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal
Republic; difficulties in taking care of official matters; sympathy
scale for political parties; attitude to the census; intent to
participate in the census; knowledge about the compulsory participation
requirement; personal consequences of non-participation; willingness to
participate given threat of fine; response or boycott behavior during
the survey; time of last noticed media reports about the census and
tendency of content of these articles; conversations about the census
in social surroundings and time of last conversation; living together
with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of
partner in the census; attitude to the census in circle of friends and
acquaintances as well as their assumed willingness to participate;
perceived attitude of the population as well as parties, churches and
trade unions to the census; knowledge about contents of the census
survey; knowledge about the survey procedure; attitude to government
statistics; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal census data;
trust in observance of data protection; attitude to the census in 1983;
perception of advertising actions for and against the census and
judgement on the arguments of supporters and opponents; attitude to
technology; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; knowledge about
the office for data protection and the data protection official;
frequency of conversations about politics; ability to establish
contacts; party preference; behavior at the polls in the last Federal
Parliament election.

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number
of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training;
occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of
respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to
household income; size of household; position of respondent in
household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons
eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have
German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership
of respondent and other members of household; possession of a
telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention by others in interview and
person causing this intervention; attitude to the census of other
persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other
rooms; reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate.

Also encoded were: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.