European Parliament COVID-19 Surveys

In 2020 the European Parliament commissioned a public opinion survey on the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic with the title "Public opinion in times of COVID-19". Three rounds of data have been collected in 21 (Round 1) to 27 (Round 2 and Round 3) EU member states as an online or telephone survey with ca. 21.000 to 25.000 cases per round. The issues covered focus on an assessment of public measures against the pandemic and on the impact the pandemic has on various aspects of the personal lives of the respondents.

Although these surveys are not Eurobarometer surveys in the strict sense, the European Parliament Public Opinion Monitoring Unit kindly shared the raw data and materials with the GESIS Eurobarometer Data Service in order to provide user access to these microdata. The materials diverge strongly from the usual Eurobarometer formats. However, the usage regulations regarding data access, citations etc. are the same as for the Eurobarometer (see here).

Population, countries and regions

The survey was conducted in 21 EU countries in Round 1 (excluding Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg) and the 27 EU countries in the other rounds. The sample was restricted to EU citizens aged 16 to 64, with the exception of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia, where the age bracket was 16 to 54, and Malta, where the age bracket was defined as 16+. The surveys contain detailed regional identifiers largely based on the European NUTS classification. These identifiers mostly conform to the regional variables (p7XX) found in the Standard and Special Eurobarometer surveys.

Sampling and fieldwork

The survey was conducted from 23 April to 1 May 2020 (Round 1), from 11 June to 29 June 2020 (Round 2), and from 25 September to 7 October 2020 (Round 3). The samples were based on Kantar’s online access panel. Quotas on gender, age, and region were applied in order to ensure representativeness.