Germany Monitor ´23 - Main Survey

The Germany Monitor is an annual survey with the aim of empirically surveying the stability and changes in political and social moods and attitudes of the population in East and West Germany. Each year, a new annual focus is set. A main survey (nationwide) and a regional in-depth survey are carried out. The latter includes pre-selected districts. These surveys are available in separate data sets.

The Germany Monitor ´23 was conducted by the opinion research institute forsa on behalf of the Zentrum für Sozialforschung Halle e.V. (Halle Center for Social Research). In the survey period 26.05.2023 - 27.06.2023, the German-speaking resident population aged 16 and over was surveyed in telephone interviews (CATI). The focus in 2023 was on “urban and rural”. In addition to socio-demographic and political attitudes, regional questions were also addressed. This included the cohabitation of people, the challenges and strengths of the place of residence, the socialization of the respondent and affiliation to the place of residence. Respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sample from an ADM selection frame, including landline and mobile phone numbers (dual-frame sample) in a ratio of 70:30. 4,001 telephone interviews were conducted in total.<br>Life satisfaction; affiliation to Germany as a whole, to East Germany, to West Germany, to the federal state and to the place of residence; assessment of the economic situation in Germany as a whole, in East Germany, in West Germany, in the federal state and in the place of residence as well as of one´s own economic situation; migration is necessary to meet the demand for qualified skilled workers; year since moving to the current place of residence; perceived development of the place of residence in the last 10 to 15 years; expected development of the place of residence in the next 10 to 15 years; sociality index where I live (People here help each other, you can trust the people here, people here motivate each other to achieve something, the interaction between young and old works well here, my town/municipality involves citizens in municipal planning, my town/municipality uses public funds responsibly, there is a lively club life in my place of residence, I am generally satisfied with the quality of life in my place of residence, I am generally satisfied with the quality of life in my immediate neighborhood, I would not want to live anywhere else, I have a positive view of my personal future in the place where I currently live); challenges in the place of residence (integration of people from other countries, emigration of young people, lack of skilled workers, availability of affordable housing, increasing contrast between rich and poor, indebtedness of the place of residence); greatest challenge for the place of residence (open question); characterization of the place of residence using pairs of opposites (rural - urban, traditional - cosmopolitan, wealthy - poor, central - remote, family-friendly - family-unfriendly, attractive place to live - not an attractive place to live); satisfaction with the infrastructure in the place of residence (provision of fast internet, provision of public transport, availability of childcare facilities, provision of general practitioners, availability of care services, accessibility of specialists, accessibility of cultural and leisure facilities and accessibility of shopping facilities for daily needs); regional resentment (feeling of being left behind): Politicians in Berlin are not interested in the region where I live, people in the rest of Germany do not respect how people live here in our region, politicians in Berlin have done too little to improve the economic situation in my region, my region has developed worse economically than other regions in Germany, compared to other regions in Germany, the condition of public buildings in my region is very good); interest in politics; responsiveness: Politicians strive to maintain close contact with the population; populism (Members of the German Bundestag should be exclusively committed to the will of the people, the rulers and powerful in our society act against the interests of ordinary people, the people agree in principle on what needs to happen politically, decisions made after a debate in parliament are better than decisions made directly by the people); internal efficacy (I can understand and assess important political issues well); attitude towards the idea of democracy; satisfaction with democracy in Germany according to the constitution; satisfaction with the functioning of democracy in Germany; general party identification; party identification: party; political positioning (right-left); political participation in the last 12 months (involvement in a political party, political content shared, posted, e.g. on Facebook, in a blog, via Twitter, etc.); extremism (every democratic society has certain conflicts that involve violence), participation in a citizens´ assembly, participation in an authorized public demonstration or action, participation in an unauthorized public demonstration or action); extremism (In every democratic society there are certain conflicts that must be resolved by force, reforms do not improve living conditions, we need a revolution, the state is an instrument of oppression that must be abolished, if necessary, a dictatorship is the better form of government); trust in institutions (federal government, state government in the federal state, mayor trust in institutions (federal government, state government in the federal state, mayor, Federal Constitutional Court); predominance of advantages or disadvantages of reunification for Germany and for the respondent personally; attitude towards the responsibility of the state (in general, securing income in an emergency, old-age provision/pension, ensuring health care for the sick, ensuring a decent standard of living for the unemployed, providing a job for everyone who wants to work, controlling wages and salaries, controlling prices, reducing income inequality, providing adequate and affordable housing, ensuring growth of industry); status: Fair share of living standards; worries about becoming more and more on the losing side of life due to social development; greatest strength for future development of place of residence (open-ended query); socialization before reunification; socialization after reunification; rural-urban socialization in youth.

Demography: sex; age (categories); age (numerical); year of birth; education: highest general school-leaving qualification; desired school-leaving qualification; employment; highest professional qualification; education: CASMIN-generated index; marital status; German nationality; born in the Federal Republic of Germany; parents born in the Federal Republic of Germany; household income (categories); household size; number of children in the household; religious affiliation; migration background.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; survey year; type data set (basic sample); region east/west; regions by ILTIS (prosperity); Thünen Rurality Index (Thünen-Ländlichkeitsindex); BBSR settlement structure district type; town size group; BIK regions; selection frame (fixed network, mobile); weighting factors; institutional trust: generated index; institutional trust executive index: generated index; regional resentment: generated index; social cohesion in place of residence, location quality of place of residence; quality of life in place of residence; sociality index: generated iIndex; extremism: generated index; state responsibility: generated index; typology of democratic orientation; populism: generated index; type of telephone connections in the household.