On Monday 17/9/18, the launch of the European Social Survey (ESS) started in Cyprus, an academic comparative research that has been carried out every two years across Europe since 2001. ESS measures attitudes, beliefs and behavioural patterns of various populations in more than thirty countries. The main objectives of ESS are:
- to map the stability and change in the social structure, social conditions and attitudes of citizens in Europe and to interpret how Europe's social, political and ethical fabric is changing,
- to highlight stringent standards of rigor in comparative research in the social sciences, such as questionnaire design, pre-research control, sampling, data collection, bias and question reliability,
- to establish robust social development indicators based on citizens' perceptions and views on key areas of their societies,
- to facilitate the training of social researchers in comparative quantitative measurement and analysis,
- to improve the visibility of social change data between academics, policy makers and the general public.
The research is implemented by a consortium of universities (European University of Cyprus, University of Cyprus, CUT, University of Frederick, University of Nicosia, and University of UCLAN) by decision of the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development. The National Coordination of the project takes university rotation. For the period from November 2017 to May 2019, the European University of Cyprus has the coordination with Professor Marios Vryonidis as a National Coordinator. The field research is coordinated by the University Research Center of the University of Cyprus with the Director, Charis Psaltis and supervisor Mrs. Andria Nicolaou.
The survey is conducted through personal interviews with a questionnaire based on a common template, but contains specific country-specific questions (e.g., questions about political parties, religions, education system, legal status, etc.) so that reflect the national context. The ESS sample is representative of all individuals aged 15 and over (without age limit) residing in private households in Cyprus, regardless of nationality, nationality or language. Individuals are selected by stringent random sampling methods. The size of the sample is about 1000 people and households are covered in the urban and rural areas of Cyprus.