The Eurobarometer Survey Series

The Eurobarometer program was launched in the early 70ies as a bi-annual public opinion survey ("repeated cross-section") in all member states of the European Union on behalf of the European Commission:

• Principal investigators - institutional background and a brief view on history

During the 90ies the program expanded considerably in topics, frequency and instruments. Special topical modules enlarged the classic Standard Eurobarometer, establishing (multi-)topical add-on surveys under each wave. The EU Eastern enlargement was anticipated by the Central & Eastern Eurobarometer (1990-1997), later replaced by the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (2001-2004). The Flash-Eurobarometer completes the program with small scale ad-hoc surveys.

For up-to-date “study profile” information on each individual survey (topics, coverage and fieldwork, dataset releases and errata, access to data, questionnaires and reports etc.), please look up the different survey series specifications:

• Standard & Special Eurobarometer (1970 ff. incl. European Communities Studies)
• Central & Eastern Eurobarometer (1990-1997)
• Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (2001-2004)
• Flash Eurobarometer (1991 ff.)

Searching for (potentially comparable) questions across waves and series is facilitated on the one hand by a flexible full text and on the other by a precise variable oriented question retrieval, the latter not being available for the Flash Eurobarometer series.