ESS round 6 - 2012. Personal wellbeing, Democracy

The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically-driven multi-country survey, which has been administered in over 30 countries to date. Its three aims are, firstly – to monitor and interpret changing public attitudes and values within Europe and to investigate how they interact with Europe's changing institutions, secondly - to advance and consolidate improved methods of cross-national survey measurement in Europe and beyond, and thirdly - to develop a series of European social indicators, including attitudinal indicators.

In the sixth round, the survey covers 29 countries and employs the most rigorous methodologies. It is funded via the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme, the European Science Foundation and national funding bodies in each country.

The survey involves strict random probability sampling, a minimum target response rate of 70% and rigorous translation protocols. The hour-long face-to-face interview includes questions on a variety of core topics repeated from previous rounds of the survey and also two modules developed for Round Six covering Europeans’ Understandings and Evaluations of Democracy and Personal and Social Wellbeing (the latter is a partial repeat of a module from round 3).