European Social Survey / A Schym research series
Europe,
Measured.
25 questions about trust, belonging and the good life. One survey programme, many different social contracts.
Strasbourg, 2014. Photo: DAVID ILIFF. CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped. The ESS covers participating countries beyond the EU.
- Programme
- 25 questions / 5 pillars
- Baseline
- Round 11 / edition 4.2
- Latest fieldwork
- March 2023 to December 2024
- Publication ledger
- 1 published / 24 in preparation
The research programme
A continent. Twenty-five questions.
Each question has its own evidence boundary. Planned work is not a published finding.
25 of 25 questions
ESS-01Police and politicians
Where is trust in police higher than trust in politicians, and how has the difference changed?
ESS-02Democracy's delivery gap
Where is democracy most desired but least delivered?
ESS-03When the economy loses legitimacy
At what point does economic dissatisfaction become democratic dissatisfaction?
ESS-04The distance between risk and fear
Is fear of crime explained by victimization or by social insecurity?
ESS-05Who deserves the safety net?
Who deserves support when the welfare state cannot help everyone?
ESS-06Happier, but less equally happy?
Has Europe become happier or merely less equally happy?
ESS-07Income or another evening together?
What is worth more for life satisfaction: one income decile or one additional level of social contact?
ESS-08Is the midlife low moving?
Is Europe's midlife low disappearing?
ESS-09What prosperity buys
Which countries convert prosperity into wellbeing most efficiently?
ESS-10Connected, but less alone?
Does online contact reduce loneliness, or only when it supplements face-to-face contact?
ESS-11More welcoming. More divided?
Has Europe become more accepting of immigration while becoming more polarized?
ESS-12Does contact change the boundary?
Is contact with immigrants associated with lower cultural threat, or only among people already predisposed to tolerance?
ESS-13What predicts the closed door?
Which predicts anti-immigration attitudes better: economic insecurity, education or human values?
ESS-14A passport is not belonging
What is the belonging penalty of perceived discrimination?
ESS-15Three ways to leave religion
Is Europe secularizing through belief, belonging or practice?
ESS-16Equality, until the policy starts
Where do people support gender equality in principle but resist the policies required to produce it?
ESS-17Who resists the change?
Who forms Europe's gender-backlash coalition?
ESS-18Does parenthood change the rules?
Does parenthood make men and women more traditional in different ways?
ESS-19The work-family bill
Who pays the wellbeing tax of work-family conflict: mothers, fathers or childless workers?
ESS-20Respected, then excluded
Do Europeans respect older people while excluding them from work and public life?
ESS-21Health has a social staircase
How large is Europe's social health gradient, and did it widen between 2014 and 2023/24?
ESS-22The long reach of childhood
Does childhood hardship still leave a health scar after age 50?
ESS-23Concern meets the household bill
Who accepts climate responsibility but rejects the household cost of climate action?
ESS-24Equal in which sense?
Do Europeans define fairness as equal outcomes, equal opportunities or rewards for merit?
ESS-25Did 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?