Eurobarometer description

Eurobarometer surveys are the official polling instrument used by the European Parliament, the European Commission and other EU institutions and agencies to monitor regularly the state of public opinion in Europe on issues related to the European Union as well as attitudes on subjects of political or social nature. Eurobarometer provides quality and relevant data for experts in public opinion, researchers, media and the public. The Eurobarometer project was initiated in 1974 within the European Commission and was first conceived as a means to 'reveal Europeans to themselves'. Since then, it has evolved and expanded significantly with different survey tools. The Standard Eurobarometer surveys are generally conducted in a face-to-face interview format in all EU Member States and some additional countries and territories.

Number of surveys to date: 235 (July 2022) Total number of participants: Number of querries per survey:

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412953993.n182

Eurobarometer is conducted every 6 months, and the results are released free of charge to the public. About 1,000 citizens from each European Union (EU) country are polled through face-to-face interviews, with the exception of countries with small populations such as Malta or Cyprus, where the sample for Eurobarometer averages 500 persons.

The first study was designed by the first director of Eurobarometer, Jacques-René Rabier, in collaboration with U.S. political scientist Ronald Inglehart, and was conducted in the nine EU Member States at the time (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, and Luxembourg). The results of this first survey were released in 1974. Over time, Eurobarometer grew from surveying the nine original EU countries to include new EU members. Greece was added in fall 1980, Portugal and Spain in fall 1985, the former German Democratic Republic in fall 1990, Finland in spring 1993, and Sweden and Austria in fall 1994. The 13 Central and Eastern European candidate countries that became full members of the EU in 2004 and 2007 were first surveyed in fall 2001.