ESS round 10 - 2020. Democracy, Digital social contacts

The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey, founded in 2001. It has been administered in 40 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. The survey involves strict random probability sampling, high response rate and rigorous translation protocols.

ESS data collection is based on an hour-long face-to-face interview. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at Round 10, a total of 9 countries switched to a self-completion (web and paper) approach, while 22 countries used ESS’s usual face-to-face fieldwork approach. In addition, countries opting for the usual face-to-face approach, could use video interviews as a back-up for the in-person interviews. Caution is advised when making comparisons between countries using face-to-face and self-completion approaches at ESS Round 10, and when making time series comparisons in a country that has used a self-completion approach at Round 10.

Another impact of the pandemic was that Round 10 fieldwork was carried out over a longer period than a usual ESS Round. The first country started fieldwork in September 2020 and the final countries finished fieldwork in August 2022. The pandemic may have resulted in some attitudinal and behavioural changes; therefore, the timing of fieldwork may be particularly important at this round. Users are encouraged to review the fieldwork dates for countries and consider this when carrying out analysis between Round 10 participating countries, or when comparing country level results at Round 10 with previous ESS rounds.

The tenth ESS round covers 31 countries. It includes questions on a variety of core topics repeated from previous rounds of the survey and also two modules developed for Round 10. These are Digital Social Contacts in Work and Family Life, and Understandings and Evaluations of Democracy (the latter is a partial repeat of a module from Round 6).

From Round 7 the ESS has been legally established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). Central costs are funded through ESS ERIC membership fee (Members, Observers and Guests), while costs of fieldwork and national coordination are funded nationally.