The Finnish Voter Barometer surveys are commissioned by the major parties in the Parliament. In election years, other sponsors have also been involved. Up till 1988, the surveys were planned by Gallup Finland (TNS Gallup Ltd) and the Department of Political Science at the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with the political parties. After 1988, the planning has been in the hands of Gallup Finland and the parties.
From 1973 to 1990, the annual voter barometers were collected mainly with face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires, 1000-2000 interviews/barometer. Since 1991, the data have been collected with GallupChannel (PC's installed in respondents' homes). No surveys were conducted in 1985 and 1989.
Survey themes include voting behaviour, opinions on the government and the parties, and attitudes towards national political issues. In addition, respondents' economic expectations and political participation have often been studied, as well as their opinions on local politics, and the significance of the party leader to a party. Background variables have often included the social class of the respondent and the household head, economic activity of the household head, respondent's education, age, mother tongue, gender, party membership, political views, trade union membership, and family's annual income. There are also regional variables. Even though the variables are not always fully comparable from one survey to another, all kinds of comparisons over time are possible. The FSD collections cover data from 1973.
The variables describe the following: satisfaction in the government, conceptions about the economical development, opinions on labour market agreements on wages, interaction between voters and the parties, voting in the 1975 parliamentary elections and the 1976 municipal elections, use of suffrage, reasons for abstaining, changing one's party, important information sources in view of deciding to vote, willingness to change candidates, assessing the qualities of election candidates, voting certainty and one's candidate in electoral college elections, grounds for voting and abstaining, the importance of voting in different elections, image of the parties, interest in politics, party sympathies and antipathies, and membership in organisations. Some variables are connected with the interview situation.
Stratified multistage sampling
The target population was stratified according to the number of inhabitants aged 15 or over in each province and in the second stage, by municipality group within each province. Municipalities were classified into five groups on the basis of their level of industrialisation. The stratifying frame achieved in this manner was used to count how many interviews should be done in the municipalities of each municipality group in order to have a geographically and demographically representative sample. The municipalities in the sample have been selected with the Deming zone selection method. This method is based on the use of random numbers and gives each municipality an equal chance to be selected, although municipalities with large population have a better chance to be selected. A municipality may be sampled more than once - in which case more than one starting point is drawn for that municipality. The interviews were conducted in clusters of four subjects using the starting point method. The starting points were drawn from the population register, selecting individuals born on the 5th of any month, and then selecting starting addresses among them from the sample municipalities at fixed intervals. The first interview was conducted at the starting point; the individual chosen for the interview within the household had to correspond to the age and sex criteria determined by the selection card. If necessary, one follow-up was made for each subject. Interviews were conducted in 48 cities and 57 rural municipalities. The number of respondents was 1,272.