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European Social Survey (ESS)
ESS is a comparative social science survey that has been measuring trends in European societies since 2002. Conducted by national operators, the survey applies a strict methodology at every stage of its production. CDSP has been coordinating the French iteration of the European Social Survey since 2011.
Methodological principles
The European Social Survey (ESS) is a large-scale, comparative, recurrent European survey that provides material for social science research. Run every 2 years since 2002, it aims to measur trends in European societies through questions on opinions, attitudes and subjective perceptions of situations. Up to now, the survey has taken place by means of face-to-face computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) with representative national samples drawn from the populations of almost 30 countries.
The central goal of the ESS project is to produce data that are comparable over time and relate to different geographical areas. To achieve this, it needs to be based on rigorous methodological standards.
These standards are maintained at every step in the survey process: the choice of the questions asked in the survey in order to arrive at the best possible description of the political, economic and social situation during the collection process, the sampling method, the questionnaire translation procedure, the data collection protocol, the procedures for encoding and archiving the data.
The survey in France
France has been taking part in the ESS process since the first survey in 2002. The French component of the survey was coordinated for the first two rounds by the Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble, headed by Bruno Cautrès, then by Sciences Po since 2006.
The French work is primarily funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and the CNRS via the Progedo research infrastructure The French work is primarily funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and the CNRS via the IR* Progedo research infrastructure.
Nicolas Sauger and Agnalys Michaud are currently responsible for the implementation of the ESS in France as the national coordinators.
The ESS-France team coordinates the preparation of the survey (translation of the questionnaires, setting the sampling procedure), the collection (competitive tendering and selection of a research institute, training of investigators, fieldwork monitoring) and the production of the data (creation of harmonised variables, checking of data consistency, documentation of the data).
Accessing the data
The ESS data are made available free of charge to registered users. The data are available:
- For each country,
- For each survey wave,
- In the form of cumulative files for all countries and waves.
Collection in France
Numerous references showing the results obtained from the European Social Survey are available in the ESS bibliography. Simplified presentations are also available on different topics and in different languages.
A key publication on ESS in France was released in 2010:
