Attitude of the German population to the census after census day, 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; difficulties in taking care of official matters; sympathy scale for political parties; attitude to the census; conversations about the census in social surroundings and topics discussed; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances; perceived attitude of the population to the census; conversation contact with the canvasser; questionnaire filled out oneself or by canvasser; individually filling out questionnaire or information for entire household from a single person; duration of filling it out; response or boycott behavior during the survey; type of questionnaire return; attitude to the question program of the census and personal change in attitude from knowledge of the questionnaire; intent to participate; response or boycott behavior in circle of friends and acquaintances; topics noticed in media reporting about the census and tendency of content of these articles; attitude to use of canvassers; assessment and importance of trustworthiness of canvasser; attitude to punishment of census boycotters as well as persons calling for boycott; attitude to the requirement to provide information in the census (scale); attitude to the boycott and to criticism of the census (scale); attitude to government statistics; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; knowledge about the office for data protection and the office of the data protection official.

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to household income; size of household; position of respondent in household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of additional persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

Attitude of the German population and of critics of the census to the census after census day on 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; government orientation toward its own interests or public interest; perceived protection of rights to freedom by the political system and the current Federal Government; satisfaction with the job of the Federal Government; attitude to the census; receipt of a written request to fill out the questionnaire; intent to participate in the census before start of counting; personal willingness to participate in the census even given voluntary participation; assumed level of non-participation in the census; attitude to the census in one´s circle of friends and acquaintances; conversations about the census in social surroundings after conclusion of the survey and time of last conversation; knowledge about contents of the census survey; additionally expected questions; questions that one would not gladly answer; response or boycott behavior during the survey; attitude to government statistics; attitude to punishment of census boycotters and knowledge of cases of refusal; assumed willingness of the population to participate as well as honesty of responses given voluntary participation in the census; voluntarily providing selected personal data; preference for census or providing data already available by government offices; assumed benefit or damage from discussions about the census in the media and reasons for this assessment; attitude to earlier calls for boycott and to the time of survey; judgement on the success of the boycott movement; attitude to selected arguments for and against the census; benefit of a census; attitude to the obligation to provide information; census boycott as protest against the government; census participation as democratic duty; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; assumed position of the majority of the population on a left-right continuum; understanding of democracy and comparison of this right with reality in the Federal Republic; party preference; violation of fundamental rights by measures of authorities perceived personally or by persons from social surroundings; attitude to technology; perceived insecurity in contact with authorities and attitude to government offices; concerns regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude to storage of personal data; importance of data protection; assumed observance of data protection regulations; knowledge of cases of data misuse and source of information about such violations; assumed willingness to participate in a future census; attitude to opinion polls (scale); willingness to participate in a microcensus survey; willingness to provide information from one´s private sphere to friends, neighbors, census bureaus and scientific surveys; attitude to selected government statistics; willingness to respond in order to make statistics possible; fear of data misuse; concerns regarding misuse of personal data by selected institutions and government offices (scale); attitude to selected illegal actions (scale); religiousness (scale); attitude to questions of belief and the meaning of life (scale); belief in supernatural, inexplicable events as well as horoscopes and telepathy.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; religious denomination; school education; employment; college in vicinity of place of residence; students in residential area; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person causing the intervention; attitude to the census of other persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate.

Additionally encoded were: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

Attitude of the German population and of census critics to the census before census day, 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; feeling of political effectiveness and degree of representation by politicians and parties; orientation of government policies on personal interest or public welfare; attitude to the census; intent to participate of members of household and respondent; willingness to participate after reference to threat of fine; filling out the survey questionnaire oneself or by another person in household; conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last conversation; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their willingness to participate; importance of political attitudes in social surroundings and visibility of one´s own views; knowledge about contents of the census survey (scale); assumed difficulty of filling out the survey questionnaire; preference for filling it out in the presence of the canvasser or alone; misgivings about canvassers in residence; difficulties in taking care of official matters; frequency of contact and ability to establish contacts; trust in institutions and organizations; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; assumed position of the majority of the population on a left-right continuum; postmaterialism; sympathy scale for political parties; frequency of use of television news broadcasts as well as local news and political part of a daily newspaper; time of last noticed media reports about the census and tendency of content of these articles; assumed attitude of the population to the census; living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of partner in the census; response or boycott behavior during the census survey; attitude to government statistics; attitude to punishment of census boycotters and preferred government behavior regarding refusals; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; sympathy regarding social movements as well as personal membership; party preference; perceived fears and their causes; attitude to technology; attitude to computers and to scientific innovations; attitude to government behavior with data; assessment of census refusers as system opponents; attitude to storing personal data; importance of data protection and trust in observance of the data protection regulation; judgement on the quality of data protection; earlier participation in a survey and type of survey; attitude to selected infringements of law and crimes as well as other illegal actions (scale); religiousness; union membership; self-assessment of social class; possession of a telephone; willingness to participate in a re-interview.

The following additional questions were posed to persons with strong or very strong political interest: demographic information on close circle of friends (ego-centered network); agreement with the respondent regarding party preference and attitude to the census; willingness of friends to participate in the census; familiarity of friends with each other; personal willingness to participate in selected political forms of protest (scale); personal concerns regarding misuse of personal data by selected institutions and government offices.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to household income; size of household; position of respondent in household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of additional persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

Attitude of the German population and census critics on the census after census day, 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; attitude to the census; conversations about the census in social surroundings and topics discussed; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances; perceived attitude of the population to the census; time of personal opinion making on the census; changes in attitude to the census; personally knowing the canvasser; type of questionnaire distribution; conversation contact with canvasser at house door or in residence; remarks by canvasser about his attitude to the census and tendency of content of these comments; questions of canvasser about residents of a neighboring residence; questionnaire filled out personally or by canvasser; help or explanation of canvasser when filling it out; help requested or offered by canvasser; length of stay of canvasser in household; individually filling out questionnaire or information on entire household from a single person; duration of filling it out; response or boycott behavior during the survey; type of questionnaire return; knowledge about census questions before start of survey; judgement on clarity of survey questionnaire; census questions causing difficulties or reluctantly answered; additionally expected questions; attitude to the question program of the census and personal changes in attitude after knowledge of questionnaire content; participation in boycott initiatives and events against the census; intensity of one´s own boycott inclination; extent to which informed about avoiding fines; receipt of a written request to fill out the questionnaire; co-ordinated conduct of entire household regarding the census; boycott inclination in circle of friends and acquaintances; topics of noticed media reports about the census and tendency of the content of these articles; attitude to use of canvassers; assessment and importance of trustworthiness of canvasser; influence on one´s own attitude to the census from acts of violence against canvassers that became known; attitude to a supposed connection of calls for boycott and acceptance of such violent actions; expectations regarding punishment of boycotters and knowledge of prosecuted cases of refusal; attitude to punishment of census boycotters as well as calls for boycott; attitude to the requirement to provide information in the census; attitude to census boycott as protest against the government; census participation as democratic duty; census as government demonstration of power; criticism of the manner of conducting the census; attitude to government statistics; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude to selected illegal actions and the census boycott; party preference.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; religious denomination; school education; employment; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person causing this intervention; attitude to the census of other persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate.

Also encoded were: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

The 2021 Northern Ireland Census marked the first time since records began where the Catholic share of the population was larger than the combined Protestant share. In 2021, over 42 percent of the population classified themselves as Catholic or from a Catholic background, in comparison with 37 percent classified as Protestant or from a Protestant background. Additionally, the share of the population with no religion (or those who did not answer) was 19 percent; larger than any individual Protestant denomination. This marks a significant shift in demographic and societal trends over the past century, as Protestants outnumbered Catholics by roughly 2:1 when Northern Ireland was established in the 1920s. Given the Catholic community's historic tendency to be in favor of a united Ireland, many look to the changing religious composition of the population when assessing the potential for Irish reunification. Religion's historical influence A major development in the history of British rule in ireland was the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s, where much of the land in the north (historically the most rebellious region) was seized from Irish Catholics and given to Protestant settlers from Britain (predominantly Scots). This helped establish Protestant dominance in the north, created a large section of the population loyal to the British crown, and saw a distinct Ulster-Scots identity develop over time. In the 1920s, the republican movement won independence for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, however, the six counties in Ulster with the largest Protestant populations remained part of the UK, as Northern Ireland. Following partition, structural inequalities between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities meant that the Protestant population was generally wealthier, better educated, more politically empowered, and had better access to housing, among other advantages. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement then emerged for equal rights and status for both sides of the population, but this quickly turned violent and escalated into a the three-decade long conflict now known as the Troubles.

The Troubles was largely fought between nationalist/republican paramilitaries (mostly Catholic), unionist/loyalist paramilitaries (mostly Protestant), and British security forces (including the police). This is often described as a religious conflict, however it is more accurately described as an ethnic and political conflict, where the Catholic community generally favored Northern Ireland's reunification with the rest of the island, while the Protestant community wished to remain in the UK. Paramilitaries had a large amount of support from their respective communities in the early years of the Troubles, but this waned as the conflict progressed into the 1980s and 1990s. Demographic and societal trends influenced the religious composition of Northern Ireland's population in these decades, as the Catholic community had higher fertility rates than Protestant communities, while the growing secularism has coincided with a decline in those identifying as Protestant - the dip in those identifying as Catholic in the 1970s and 1980s was due to a protest and boycott of the Census. The Troubles came to an end in 1998, and divisions between both sides of the community have drastically fallen, although they have not disappeared completely.

Attitude of the Federal German population and census critics to the census on 31. May 1987.

Summary of three data sets archived and described under ZA Study Nos. 1588 to 1590.

Topics: 1. From the first wave of 1987: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; feeling of political effectiveness and degree of representation by politicians and parties; orientation of government policies on special interests or public welfare; attitude to the census; intent of members of household and respondent to participate; willingness to participate after notice of threat of fine; filling out the survey form oneself or by another person in household; conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last conversation; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their willingness to participate; importance of political attitudes in social surroundings and visibility of one´s own views; knowledge about contents of the census survey (scale); assumed difficulty in filling out survey form; preference for filling out the form in the presence of the canvasser or alone; misgivings about canvasser in residence; difficulties in carrying out official matters; frequency of contact and ability to establish contacts; trust in institutions and organizations; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; assumed position of the majority of the population on a left-right continuum; postmaterialism; sympathy scale for political parties; frequency of use of television news broadcasts as well as the local part and political part of a daily newspaper; time of last noticed media reports about the census and content tendency of these programs; assumed attitude of the population to the census; living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of partner in the census; response or boycott conduct in the census survey; attitude to government statistics; attitude to punishment of census boycotters and preferred governmental behavior regarding refusal; personal fears regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; sympathies regarding social movements as well as personal membership; party preference; perceived fears and their causes; attitude to technology; attitude to computers and scientific innovations; attitude to government dealing with data; assessment of census refusers as system opponents; attitude to storage of personal data; importance of data protection and trust in observance of the data protection regulation; judgement on quality of data protection; earlier participation in a survey and type of survey; attitude to selected infringements and crimes as well as other illegal actions (scale); religiousness; union membership; self-assessment of social class; possession of a telephone; willingness to participate in a re-interview.

The following additional questions were posed to persons with strong or very strong political interest: demographic information on circle of close friends (ego-centered network); agreement with respondent regarding party preference and attitude to the census; willingness of friends to participate in the census; familiarity of friends among each other; personal willingness to participate in selected political forms of protest (scale); personal fears regarding misuse of personal data by selected institutions and public offices.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of children (classified); frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly net income of respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to household income; size of household; position of respondent in household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person introducing the intervention; attitude to the census of persons additionally present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview; ident...

Attitude of the West German population to the census.

Summary of the data sets of a five-wave trend survey from ZA Study Nos. 1583 to 1587, insofar as it touches on the census topic.

Topics: 1. From the first wave (ZA Study No. 1583): political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; difficulties in completing official matters; sympathy scale for political parties; attitude to the census and intent to participate; knowledge about the legal obligation to participate; personal consequences of non-participation; readiness to participate given threat of fine; response or boycott conduct in the survey; time of last noticed media reports about the census and content tendency of these articles; conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last conversation; living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of partner in the census; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their assumed willingness to participate; perceived attitude of the population as well as parties, churches and trade unions on the census; knowledge about the survey procedure; attitude to government statistics; personal fears regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude to the census in 1983; willingness to participate in a microcensus survey; attitude to technology; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; knowledge about the office for data protection and the data protection official; earlier participation in a survey and type of survey; attitude to opinion polls (scale).

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly net income of respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to household income; size of household; position of respondent in household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person introducing intervention; attitude to the census of additional persons present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer Test.

1. From the second wave (ZA Study No. 1584): political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; difficulties in completing official matters; sympathy scale for political parties; attitude to the census; intent to participate in the census; knowledge about the legal obligation to participate; personal consequences of non-participation; readiness to participate given threat of fine; response or boycott conduct in the survey; time of last noticed media reports about the census and content tendency of these articles; conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last conversation; living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of partner in the census; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their assumed willingness to participate; perceived attitude of the population as well as parties, churches and trade unions to the census; knowledge about the contents of the census survey; knowledge about the survey procedure; attitude to government statistics; personal fears regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude to the census in 1983; perception of advertising actions for and against the census and judgement on the argumentation of supporters and opponents; attitude to technology; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; knowledge about the office for data protection and the data protection official; frequency of conversations about politics; ability to establish contacts; party preference; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election.

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number of ch...

Attitude of the German population to the census before census day, 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; difficulties in taking care of official matters; sympathy scale for political parties; attitude to the census and intent to participate; knowledge about the compulsory participation requirment; personal consequences of non-participation; willingness to participate given threat of fine; response or boycott behavior during the survey; perceived media reports about the census and tendency of content of these articles; conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last conversation; living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed participation of partner in the census; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their assumed willingness to participate; perceived attitude of the population as well as parties, churches and trade unions to the census; knowledge about contents of the census survey; attitude to punishment of census boycotters as well as persons calling for boycott; knowledge about the survey procedure; attitude to government statistics; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude to the census in 1983; perception of advertising actions for and against the census and judgement on arguments of supporters and opponents; attitude to technology; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; knowledge about the office for data protection and the data protection official; frequency of conversations about politics; ability to establish contacts; party preference; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election.

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of respondent und household altogether; number of persons contributing to household income; size of household; position of respondent in household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of persons additionally present during interview; presence of further persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.