Countries, Population Coverage, Sample Sizes

In all European Union (formerly European Communities) Member Countries samples were initially drawn among the national population, aged 15 and over. Starting with Eurobarometer 41.1 the target population is the population of any nationality of an European Union member country, aged 15 years and over, resident in any of the Member States. For test purposes Eurobarometer 41.0 included a non-national European Union citizens oversample.

The regular sample size (in the sense of completed interviews) in standard Eurobarometer surveys is 1000 respondents per country except the United Kingdom (n=1000 for Great Britain and  300 for Northern Ireland since Eurobarometer 3) and Luxembourg (n=300 until the late eighties, subsequently 500 or 600). They have included Greece since Autumn 1980 (Eurobarometer 14), Portugal and Spain since Autumn 1985 (Eurobarometer 24), and the former German Democratic Republic from Autumn 1990 (Eurobarometer 34) onwards. The additional East German sample of 1000 respondents was reduced to 500 starting in 2004 (Eurobarometer 62).

In addition, an autonomous standard Eurobarometer on selected sets of questions was established in Norway (1000) in Autumn 1991 (Eurobarometer 36) and in Finland (n=1000) in Spring 1993 (Eurobarometer 39.0) with the consent of and in close co-operation with the Commission. Austria (n=1000) and Sweden (n=500) first joined in Autumn 1994 (Eurobarometer 42). In Spring 1995 (Eurobarometer 43), the complete survey series is expanded to the new European Union member countries Finland, Sweden and Austria (all with standard sample size 1000). Iceland (600) participated in Spring 2003 (Eurobarometer 59.0).

Starting with Eurobarometer 62, samples from the new member countries as of the enlargements in 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia (n=1000), Malta, and Southern Cyprus (n=500) are included. Some Eurobarometer,  mainly the basic surveys with standard trend questions, also include the remaining accession countries (AC) Bulgaria and Romania (n=1000, membership starting in 2007) and candidate countries (CC) Turkey, and Croatia (n=1000), as well as respondents from Northern Cyprus, i.e. the Turkish Cypriot Community (n=500). Macedonia (n=1000) is included starting with Eurobarometer 67.2, but not in all surveys.    

An annual Swiss survey Eurobarometer in Switzerland was launched in 1999 on selected Eurobarometer topics; integrated data sets are made available by SIDOS.