In its European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), Eurofound aims to collect comparable and reliable data on quality of life across Europe. The methodology has been incrementally improved over time based on lessons learnt and new developments which reflect the state-of-the-art in survey methodology.
| Contractor | Kantar Public, Belgium |
| Coverage | 28 EU Member States and Albania, North Macedonia (formerly FYROM), Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey |
| Fieldwork period | September 2016 to February 2017 in the EU28; November 2016 to March 2017 in the candidate countries |
| Target population | Residents of the countries mentioned above aged 18 or older |
| Sample | Multi-stage, stratified, random sample in each country. Depending on the availability of high-quality registers, sampling was carried out using individual-level, household-level and address-level registers or through enumeration using a random-walk approach. Country-level samples were stratified by region and degree of urbanisation. In each stratum, primary sampling units (PSUs) were randomly selected proportional to population size. Subsequently, a random sample of individuals or households was drawn in each PSU. Finally, unless individual-level registers were used, in each household the respondent was randomly selected. |
| Sample size | In most countries, the target sample size was 1,000. To reflect the larger populations in certain countries, the target was increased to 1,300 in the UK, 1,600 in Germany and 2,000 in Turkey. Eurofound also offered countries the opportunity to top up their sample. This offer was taken up by Italy, which led to a target sample size of 2,000 in that country. The total sample size for the EQLS 2016 in all 33 countries was 36,908 interviews. |
| Type of survey and interview | Questionnaire-based with interviews conducted face to face, at the respondent’s home in the national language(s) of the country; average duration of the interview was 40 minutes in the EU28 and 35 minutes in the candidate countries. |
| Quality assurance | Eurofound surveys subscribe to the quality criteria of the European Statistical System as developed by Eurostat. A large number of quality checks were applied by Eurofound and its contractor during preparation and implementation of the survey to ensure a high-quality outcome. See the Quality assurance report. |
For more information, see the Technical report and the Quality assessment report.