CORS
A National Research Infrastructure for Survey-Based Research
CORS (Comparative Research Center Sweden) is a national research infrastructure that brings together six research programmes focused on survey-based research, primarily within the social sciences. The programmes are designed to address a wide range of research questions across different subject areas, and nearly all collected data are made available through open access.
Five of the programmes enable international comparisons by serving as Swedish nodes within international research infrastructures. CORS also includes the Swedish Citizen Panel (Medborgarpanelen) — a research panel hosted by the SOM Institute — which researchers can use for their own data collections.
Survey Research
CORS includes some of the largest and most well-established survey-based research programmes in Sweden. Five of these serve as nodes within international research infrastructures, thereby enabling comparative studies between Sweden and other countries. Nearly all data from the various surveys are published with open access. More information about our surveys can be found below.
European Social Survey
European Social Survey (ESS) is a survey research project that studies people’s attitudes, values, and behaviours. Since 2001, the study has been conducted every two years in more than 30 European countries. Data from the ESS are published with open access and can be accessed via the ESS data portal.
European Values Study
European Values Study (EVS) is a survey research project that examines people’s values. The study provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of European citizens. It focuses on topics such as family, working life, the environment, views on life, national identity, religion, politics, and society. Since 1981, EVS has collected data that are published with open access via GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
Swedish Citizen Panel
The Swedish Citizen Panel (Medborgarpanelen) at the SOM Institute is a research-based, non-commercial web panel consisting partly of individuals who have chosen to participate voluntarily, and partly of individuals who have been randomly recruited from the national population register. With around 75,000 active participants, the Swedish Citizen Panel offers a comprehensive service for both research projects and public authorities that wish to pose their research questions to an already engaged audience.
International Social Survey Programme
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is an international research programme that conducts an annual survey with questions related to various fields within the social sciences. The survey questions are adapted to reflect changes in society and cover topics such as family and gender roles, social networks, work, the environment, health, politics, sports, and leisure. Data from the ISSP are published with open access via GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a research infrastructure that studies how health, as well as social, economic, and environmental policy factors, affect people aged 50 and older throughout the life course. SHARE enables researchers around the world to investigate questions across a wide range of research fields, from biology and demography to economics, epidemiology, medicine, gerontology, psychology, sociology, public health, and more. Access to data from the research infrastructure is provided via the SHARE website.
Swedish National Election Studies Program
The Swedish National Election Studies Program (Valforskningsprogrammet) is based at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Since the early 1950s, the programme has been dedicated to empirical studies of public opinion formation, elections and voting behaviour, as well as the state and development of Swedish representative democracy. The research also includes comparisons with developments in other countries.
One of the main aims of the research is to explain why voters vote the way they do and why elections produce the outcomes they do. The programme tracks and analyses long-term trends in Swedish electoral democracy and conducts comparative analyses with developments in other countries.
Since 1995, Sweden has participated in a unique cross-national collaborative project known as the Comparative Study of Election Surveys (CSES). More than 200 researchers from 60 countries actively take part in the project to gain a deeper understanding of fundamental questions about why citizens participate in elections and why they vote as they do.
UmU-Barometer
The UmU Barometer is a survey on societal attitudes, opinions, and behaviours among students at Umeå University. The survey was conducted once per semester between autumn 2020 and spring 2024. It includes questions on respondents’ views of other people, political issues, and societal matters, as well as questions about the participants themselves and their education.
Newsletter
A few times a year, we send out a newsletter with updates on ongoing activities within CORS, including research news, methodological developments, and newly collected data. Don’t miss any updates — subscribe to our newsletter!
CORS receives funding from The Swedish Research Council, Umeå University, the University of Gothenburg and Mid Sweden University.
