Swedish National Election Study 2014

The Swedish National Election Study 2014 was conducted in collaboration between the Department of Political Science in Gothenburg and Statistics Sweden (SCB). This collaboration has covered all of the parliamentary elections, referendums and elections to the European Parliament since 1956. The Department of Political Science is responsible for the questionnaires, interview instructions, processing of data, coding and analyses. SCB is responsible for sampling, field work and reporting to the official statistics.

The election study 2014 was conducted in a collaboration between the Department of Political Science in Gothenburg and Statistics Sweden (SCB). This collaboration has covered all of the parliamentary elections, referendums and elections to the European Parliament since 1956. The Department of Political Science is responsible for the questionnaires, interview instructions, processing of data, coding and analyses. SCB is responsible for sampling, field work and reporting to the official statistics.

The election study of the parliamentary election 2014 follows the same design as all of the previous election studies since the election in 1973. The study includes a representative sample of 3971 Swedish citizens who are qualified to vote in the age range 18–80 years old. Swedish citizens living abroad were excluded from the sample. 2230 individuals from the 3971 individuals included in the sample participated in an interview (56 percent). The number of drop-outs (non-response) was 1741 individuals. 845 individuals from this group declined participation, 800 individuals were not available and 91 persons could not participate because of illness or similar reasons (information is missing for 5 individuals).

The study is divided into two stages, one stage before the election and one stage after the election. Half of the sample is selected to be interviewed before the election, and the other half of the sample is to be interviewed after the election. The individuals who are interviewed before the election also receive a shorter questionnaire after the election, including questions about their voting choice in the election 2014 (parliament, county council and local municipality). The individuals who could, for different reasons, not be interviewed before the election by SCB are contacted again after the election. The respondents will then answer the post-election questionnaire.

The sample is is comprised of a two-step-panel. Half of the individuals in the selection participated in the election study of 2010 and are interviewed again in the election study 2014. The other half of the individuals in the sample are interviewed for the first time 2014 and are contacted again for an interview 2018.

Election studies, as with all survey studies, are affected by increasingly large numbers of drop-outs (non-responses). All of the individuals who hesitate/decline to participate in an interview are therefore asked to participate in a shortened version of the interview in order to mitigate the effect of this problem. Individuals who hesitate to participate in the shortened version are asked to participate in an extremely shortened version of the questionnaire.

The field work in stage A, the pre-election interviews, started the 18th of August and finished the 12th of September. The individuals who responded in stage A received a shorter post election-questionnaire by mail on the 15th of September. The field work in stage B, the post-election interviews, started the day after the election, the 15th of September, and finished the 10th of October. The work that followed was finished by the beginning of November. Show less..