Living Spaces - Public Opinion Survey of the BBR 1997

Housing and housing status. Residential area and social structure. Mobility and economic situation. Employment. Election decision and participation.

Topics: 1. Housing and housing status: Size of the place (degree of urbanisation); location; duration of residence; satisfaction with the place of residence; duration of residence in the apartment; previous location; status of the previous apartment; status of the current apartment; one or more households in the house; monthly contribution costs; type of purchase of the house/flat; amount of the monthly charge for mortgage repayment and interest; amount of monthly ancillary costs; amount of maintenance costs in the last calendar year; residence entitlement certificate required; owner of the apartment; rent amount; rent including costs for heating and hot water; amount of the lump sum for heating and hot water (or for heating and hot water separately); average costs for heating and hot water and payment period; rent includes modernisation levy; amount of modernisation levy overall or per sqm; adequacy of rental costs; withdrawal of housing benefit; amount of monthly housing benefit; living space; number of rooms; assessment of apartment size; apartment equipment; apartment equipment meets needs; modem or Internet connection; garden or weekend property outside the immediate residential environment; year of construction of the house; assessment of the structural condition of the house; satisfaction with the apartment.

2. Residential area and social structure: satisfaction with the immediate living environment; satisfaction with the environmental conditions at the place of residence; walking distance to selected facilities (e.g. public transport stops, shopping facilities, doctors, kindergarten, primary school, etc.); frequency of contact with relatives and friends or acquaintances (visiting relatives or friends, visits of relatives or friends, meet elsewhere, phone or write); relatives in the residential area; friends in the residential area; shopping frequency in larger shopping centres more than 5 km away from home; frequency of leisure activities at a distance of more than 20-30 km; social differences in the immediate residential environment; relationship with neighbours; change in social composition in the residential environment; foreigners in the residential area; proportion of foreigners in residential area compared to other residential areas; attitude to the spatial separation of Germans and foreigners; personal contacts with foreigners or Germans in the family, at work, in the neighbourhood or among friends and acquaintances.

3. Mobility: intention to move; most important reason for moving; preference of moving (target area); assessment of current and future personal economic situation; change in personal economic situation since one year.

4. Employment: employment status; job security; distance to work in minutes; distance to work in kilometers; problems with reconciling work and family life.

5. Election decision and participation: eligibility to vote in the last federal election; participation in the last federal election and election decision (second vote); party preference (Sunday question) or party most likely to be considered.

Demography: sex; age (month of birth and year of birth); highest school leaving certificate or targeted school leaving certificate; age at school leaving certificate; vocational education or training certificate; current or former employment; full-time or part-time employment; current or last employment position; current or last employment; current or last employment; employment in the public sector; marital status; cohabitation with a partner; employment status of the partner; former employment of the partner; professional activity of the partner; self-assessment of class affiliation; denomination; closeness to the church; church attendance frequency; union member in the household; closeness to the union; household size; net income of the respondent; number of children in the household and age of these children; number of persons in the household aged 18 years and older with German citizenship and persons with foreign citizenship; number of persons in the household contributing to household income; number of persons employed in the household; net household income; place of residence before 1989; German citizenship; telephone in the household with or without answering machine; computers in the household and computer equipment; Internet connection.

Interviewer rating: residential house type; residential area type; interview is conducted in the old or new federal states.

Additionally coded: ID BBSR; split; respondent-ID; state; government district; city size (political community size, BIK/Boustedt); interview date; interview duration; weighting factors; West/East.