Eurobarometer Survey Series

  • Standard Eurobarometer
     Standard Eurobarometer public opinion surveys are conducted on behalf of the European Commission for the purpose of monitoring social and political attitudes in Europe. 

    Use the links in this section to identify surveys of interest. You cannot download data from GESIS.
    For downloading instructions, see Obtaining and Working with the Data.
    • Eurobarometer Search Page
      Search across the codebooks, questionnaires, or ISSP codebooks. Questions still under embargo are not included in the search database.
    • Trend Questions
      A large number of questions asked in standard Eurobarometer surveys have been repeated more or less regularly over time and are useful for doing time series analysis or comparisons over time. This link provides subject access to the topics covered in the trend questions. Also refer to the Mannheim Eurobarometer which is a cumulative file of trend questions asked between 1970 and 2002. Variables have been harmonized.
    • Special Topics
      By using a keyword selection mechanism, this page highlights special topics or populations that have at one time been studied.
  • Central and Eastern European Eurobarometer
    The Central and Eastern Eurobarometer (CEEB) survey series that monitored economic and political changes, and attitudes towards Europe and the European Union in up to 20 countries of the region between 1990 and 1997.
  • Candidate Countries
    In October 2001, a series of surveys was launched covering the 13 countries that were applying for European Union membership at that time.
     
  • Obtaining and Working with the Data
    Download Eurobarometer data from     ICPSR.

    ICPSR lists studies with their title, keywords, and and abstract. The description does not include the ZA numbers used at the GESIS site.
     
    Documentation is included with the ICPSR files and additional information is available in the Eurobarometer Data Service Guide. Below are some highlights from this guide.
    • Participating Countries and Samples
      The participation of countries over time and the variations from the standard sample size of 1000 respondents per country are described for both the Standard Eurobarometer and the Central and Eastern Eurobarometer (CEEB).
    • Weight Variables
      The surveys have been designed to allow for analysis across EU countries and within any one country. Weight variables are provided for different types of analysis, both for the Standard Eurobarometer and the Central and Eastern Eurobarometer (CEEB).
    • Embargoed Variables
      When the first release of data is made for a study, some data may be not approved for public distribution and will be masked in the file. Refer to the embargo provisions page for a list of such variables. The values are masked
      with 9,999,999 etc. As the embargo expires new releases of the study replace the earlier one.
    • Study Releases
      The data for standard and trend questions are released when the full official Eurobarometer report has been published. For the Initial Release Collection, ICPSR studies contain:
      • study technical documentation and standard ICPSR study description
      • PDF codebook plus the questionnaire
      • ASCII data file (any embargoed data is masked)
      • SPSS data definition statements.
      As embargoes expire, these data and accompanying meta-data are re-released. Some time after all embargoes have ended, the final Codebook Edition is released. The study then includes all the elements of the initial edition plus:
      • documentation about sampling and fieldwork
      • ASCII codebook
      • SAS data definition statements
      • standardized value/variable labels and missing value codes
      • recodes for nation variables (allows for different configurations of countries as nations), region codes (allows for different configurations of EU), and left/right code (based on political party variable).
  • Eurobarometer Publications
    • European Commission Reports
      The results of these surveys are published in the European Commission's bi-annual Eurobarometer Report and the Trend Report and other special topic reports.

Assistance in using these or any other data resources is available on-site in the DSSC during reference hours or by emailing dssc.data@columbia.edu.