Eliisa Haanpää

Comprehensive Longitudinal Survey Data on Finnish Well-Being and Welfare Services

The National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, has collected data on the well-being of Finns and their use of welfare services through an extensive panel survey. Data have been collected in 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2013. The THL is planning to continue data collection at regular intervals. The aim of the survey is to provide up-to-date and reliable research data that allows wide-ranging studies on the well-being in Finnish society.

Each survey round contains information supplied by some 4,500 individuals. Half of the respondents are always responding to the survey for the first time, while the other half have participated in the previous collection round. Data are mainly collected through telephone interviews, with the exception of elderly people, who are interviewed face-to-face, and families with children, who were sent separate postal surveys in 2006 and 2012. The number of face-to-face interviews has been roughly 400 on each collection round.

Interviews are conducted by the interview department of Statistics Finland, and background variables used in the surveys are taken from Statistics Finland’s registers. Survey response rate has been high; over 80% for telephone surveys, and between 53% and 73% for the elderly and families with children.

Covering expenses easier than before

Well-being and welfare are addressed in the data on both the individual and household level. For instance, housing and economic well-being are charted by asking respondents about their housing type, neighbourhood and self-perceived financial situation.

When looking at the data on self-perceived financial situation, it is apparent that the percentage of Finns who feel that covering expenses with their income is difficult has not changed noticeably over the years. However, in 2004, a little over 20% of the respondents felt that covering expenses with their income was easy, while in 2009 over 30% felt this way. In 2013, the situation seems to have changed, as the percentage went down by six percentage points compared to the 2009 survey. On the other hand, the percentage of those who felt that covering expenses was fairly easy increased by five points between 2009 and 2013. On the whole, the majority felt that covering expenses with current income was easy or fairly easy.

photo

Society and welfare services

Social issues have been examined with questions on, for example, different social services and benefits provided by local and national government. The level of social security and social benefits are themes that crop up in Finnish public debate year after year.

Opinions on the level of social security vary somewhat between data collection rounds, but, on average, half of the respondents in all collection rounds consider the current level of social security adequate. In 2004, 55% of the respondents thought the level of social security was sufficient, while in 2013 48% were of the same opinion. Only about one in ten thought the level of social security was too high. Those respondents who thought that social security was too low comprised 33% of the respondents in 2004, 43% in 2006, and 41% in the latest survey. On each collection round, the majority of respondents has considered the level of social security either adequate or too low.

photo

Longitudinal studies like the Welfare and Services in Finland allow for further research on topics such as how attitudes toward welfare have changed in Finland over the years, and what factors can have affected these changes. Experiences of welfare services are charted extensively and enable studies on, for example, how services could be improved to correspond to the needs of citizens.

Source material of the charts and distributions:

  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2004 [computer file]. FSD2884, version 1.0 (2014-05-06). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2004. Helsinki: National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) [producer], 2004. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2004: Face-to-Face Interviews of the Elderly [computer file]. FSD2885, version 1.0 (2014-05-22). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2004. Helsinki: National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) [producer], 2004. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2006 [computer file]. FSD2886, version 1.0 (2014-06-03). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2006. Helsinki: National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) [producer], 2006. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2006: Families with Children [computer file]. FSD2887, version 1.0 (2014-06-03). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2006. Helsinki: National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) [producer], 2006. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2009 [computer file]. FSD2888, version 1.0 (2014-06-03). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2009. Helsinki: National Institute for Health and Welfare [producer], 2009. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Moisio, Pasi: Welfare and Services in Finland 2009: Face-to-Face Interviews of the Elderly [computer file]. FSD2889, version 1.0 (2014-06-06). Helsinki: Statistics Finland [data collection], 2009. Helsinki: National Institute for Health and Welfare [producer], 2009. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2014.
  • Data from the 2013 survey used in the charts and distributions were obtained from Pasi Moisio.