Attitude to the Census (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 and intent to
participate; knowledge about the compulsory participation requirment;
personal consequences of non-participation; willingness to participate
given threat of fine; response or boycott behavior during the survey;
perceived 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; attitude to punishment
of census boycotters as well as persons calling for boycott; 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
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 und 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 of others in interview and
person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of persons
additionally present during interview; presence of further persons in
other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

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