In 2021 the European Council of Foreign Relations conducted a survey across 12 member states to assess the national and collective impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They used polling organisations to contact online a total of 16,267 respondents, who are described in the report as ‘nationally representative of basic demographics’. Each country had at least 1,000 people in their sample, though larger ones had just over 3,000. You might want to think now about the impact of having different national sample sizes collected online when looking at results generated by the total sample. For most of the survey questions discussed in the report, the non-substantial answers — the ‘Don’t knows’ and ‘Other’ replies — were excluded from the analysis. You might think about the impact of this too.
The authors of the survey conclude that the different ways in which people have been affected by the pandemic have caused perspectives in member states in the north and the west to diverge from those in the south and the east. The divides over public health, economic victimhood, and the idea of freedom could prove long-lasting. But the most dramatic divide may be that identified between generations. Across Europe at the height of the pandemic, it was obvious that governments needed to focus on saving the lives of the oldest, but perhaps the time has now come to focus on the problems of the young.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
