The European Social Survey
A Schym research series
Europe,
Measured.
Europe has more than one social contract.
25 questions about trust, belonging and the good life. Follow a country beyond the average, through the institutions and experiences that make its answers different.
A survey, not a border.
30 participants / Round 11France / Included in ESS11
Hover to inspect; click to select. On the map, arrow keys inspect countries and Enter selects. The selector gives every country the same access.
All 30 participating countries
ESS11 edition 4.2, 2023/24 fieldwork. Participation is neither EU membership nor complete territorial coverage. Outlines: Natural Earth 5.1.2, public domain; geographic orientation only.
- Programme
- 25 questions / 5 pillars
- Baseline
- Round 11 / edition 4.2
- Latest fieldwork
- March 2023 to December 2024
- Publication ledger
- 4 published / 21 in preparation
Start with the evidence
Published studies
Questions tested against the survey. Each study keeps its sources, uncertainty and exact values within reach.
- ESS-06Published research
Europe got happier, however you label the scale
Across 17 matched countries from 2010/11 to 2023/24, the share of people above every cut-off on the 0-10 life-satisfaction scale rose, so no relabeling of the answers reverses the gain. Dispersion fell on every index, and the gap between countries closed by almost a fifth.
- ESS-03Published research
When the economy loses legitimacy
Equal economic-satisfaction steps correspond to unequal differences in democratic ratings. Nine interactive figures reveal response distributions, adjusted probabilities and the limits of a common European curve.
- ESS-02Published research
Democracy's delivery gap
Nine paired democratic principles across two survey rounds. In the fixed 18-country comparison, poverty-protection gaps narrowed while media-freedom gaps widened; importance and perceived performance retain their different anchors.
- ESS-01Published research
Police and politicians
Police receive higher average trust ratings than politicians in all 30 latest-round countries. Eleven ESS rounds reveal different national histories, with paired answers, survey-design uncertainty and explicit coverage limits.
The research programme
A continent. Twenty-five questions.
Five ways into the European social contract. Every question has a permanent address and an explicit evidence boundary. Planned work is not a published finding.
25 of 25 questions
Research pillar A
The social contract
Trust, democracy and the institutions that hold a society together.
- ESS-01PublishedPilot 1
Police and politicians
Where is trust in police higher than trust in politicians, and how has the difference changed?
- ESS-02PublishedFlagship
Democracy's delivery gap
Where is democracy most desired but least delivered?
- ESS-03PublishedWave 1
When the economy loses legitimacy
At what point does economic dissatisfaction become democratic dissatisfaction?
- ESS-04PlannedWave 1
The distance between risk and fear
Is fear of crime explained by victimization or by social insecurity?
- ESS-05PlannedWave 2
Who deserves the safety net?
Who deserves support when the welfare state cannot help everyone?
Research pillar B
The good life
Wellbeing, social contact and the distance between an average and a life.
- ESS-06PublishedPilot 2
Europe got happier, however you label the scale
Has Europe become happier or merely less equally happy?
- ESS-07PlannedWave 1
Income or another evening together?
What is worth more for life satisfaction: one income decile or one additional level of social contact?
- ESS-08PlannedWave 2
Is the midlife low moving?
Is Europe's midlife low disappearing?
- ESS-09PlannedWave 2
What prosperity buys
Which countries convert prosperity into wellbeing most efficiently?
- ESS-10PlannedWave 1
Connected, but less alone?
Does online contact reduce loneliness, or only when it supplements face-to-face contact?
Research pillar C
Belonging & identity
Immigration, identity and the changing boundaries of belonging.
- ESS-11PlannedPilot 3
More welcoming. More divided?
Has Europe become more accepting of immigration while becoming more polarized?
- ESS-12PlannedWave 2
Does contact change the boundary?
Is contact with immigrants associated with lower cultural threat, or only among people already predisposed to tolerance?
- ESS-13PlannedWave 2
What predicts the closed door?
Which predicts anti-immigration attitudes better: economic insecurity, education or human values?
- ESS-14PlannedWave 2
A passport is not belonging
What is the belonging penalty of perceived discrimination?
- ESS-15PlannedWave 3
Three ways to leave religion
Is Europe secularizing through belief, belonging or practice?
Research pillar D
Gender, work & age
Work, gender and the choices available at different ages.
- ESS-16PlannedFlagship
Equality, until the policy starts
Where do people support gender equality in principle but resist the policies required to produce it?
- ESS-17PlannedWave 2
Who resists the change?
Who forms Europe's gender-backlash coalition?
- ESS-18PlannedWave 3
Does parenthood change the rules?
Does parenthood make men and women more traditional in different ways?
- ESS-19PlannedWave 3
The work-family bill
Who pays the wellbeing tax of work-family conflict: mothers, fathers or childless workers?
- ESS-20PlannedWave 3
Respected, then excluded
Do Europeans respect older people while excluding them from work and public life?
Research pillar E
Health, climate & fairness
Health, climate and the limits of what a survey can tell us.
- ESS-21PlannedWave 1
Health has a social staircase
How large is Europe's social health gradient, and did it widen between 2014 and 2023/24?
- ESS-22PlannedWave 2
The long reach of childhood
Does childhood hardship still leave a health scar after age 50?
- ESS-23PlannedWave 1
Concern meets the household bill
Who accepts climate responsibility but rejects the household cost of climate action?
- ESS-24PlannedWave 2
Equal in which sense?
Do Europeans define fairness as equal outcomes, equal opportunities or rewards for merit?
- ESS-25PlannedMethodological flagship
Did Europe change, or the survey?
Does survey mode change the Europe we think we see?
The ESS interviews different probability samples in each round. It measures structural differences and change, not today's mood or the same individuals over time.
The larger argument
Beyond the country league table.
Two countries can have the same average and different social worlds. A mean may conceal a growing tail of dissatisfaction, a generational divide, or trust that survives in one institution and disappears in another.
This programme asks where those differences come from, which survive a change in the sample, and where the survey cannot distinguish between competing explanations.
- Is Europe converging or fragmenting?
- Does institutional performance still produce public trust?
- What is the European good-life equation?
- Who belongs to Europe's moral community?
- Has social modernization produced equality or backlash?
- Did Europeans change their minds, or did generations change Europe?
- Are we observing social change or changes in measurement?