New SOM Data Available with SND

Published: 2019-04-09

To the delight of research data lovers, SND has published five new surveys from the SOM Institute. The surveys are:

Människors placering på vänster-högerskalan är en av SOM-institutets längsta tidsserier
People’s placement on the political left-right scale is one of the SOM Institute’s longest-running time series. The question has been asked every year since 1986.

Marcus Weissenbilder, deputy chief analyst in the SOM Institute, is pleased to see more research data made available:

―There aren’t many datasets like these in Sweden and Europe, with such a large number of questions spanning over such a long time. And the principle of public access to official documents means that these data can be used by anyone, free of charge. They are usually very popular with students who write their theses.

Several of the SOM survey questions reappear every year, which means that there are some time series that span more than three decades. These questions can be found in the super files, together with questions that have appeared on fewer occasions, but in at least three or four surveys.

―Very few questions disappear from the super files, but instead we add variables from time to time. This year, for instance, we have focused on the regional western cumulative dataset. We have renewed it and added some time series, so that the material is more up to date. For example, we have added some questions about traffic, like the West Link Project [Västlänken], says Marcus Weissenbilder.

In the national survey 2017, a number of new research projects and questions were added, several relating to current political issues. One of the fields that haven’t been surveyed with a representative sample study like the SOM surveys is the public view on nanotechnology. Simon Larsson and Åsa Boholm, both with the Gothenburg Research Institute, showed that even though the Swedish public has a limited knowledge of nanotechnology, their attitude to technology is positive and it is thought to be of great use to society. Previous studies from other countries have gained similar results.