Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (LNU)

The LNU project. The first Swedish Level-of-Living Survey was conducted in 1968 at the initiative of the Low-Income Commission. The survey became a pioneering study and has since served as a model for other surveys. Both the ongoing Swedish statistical production through Statistics Sweden’s Survey of Living Conditions (ULF) and surveys in other countries have adopted concepts based on the LNU.

The survey is based on a nationally representative sample of one in every 1,000 adults in Sweden. In the 1991, 2000 and 2010 surveys, the age range was 18–75, while in 1968, 1974 and 1981 it was 15–75. Participants are interviewed about their living conditions across a range of areas that are central to people’s lives, including family, health, education, finances, leisure, housing, political participation, employment and working conditions.

This means that approximately 6,500–7,300 people have been included in the sampling frame at each survey wave.

The response rate has varied from 90.8 per cent in 1968 to 72.0 per cent in 2010 (61.5 per cent when a shorter questionnaire is not included). In 1974 and 1981, the Swedish Parliament provided funding for two additional Level-of-Living Surveys. In 1991, the survey was replicated again, this time funded by eight different research councils.

Across the surveys, largely the same questions about living conditions were asked. However, the 1991 LNU introduced methodological developments, including more retrospective questions about respondents’ education, employment and cohabitation histories. A survey was also conducted among the senior managers at the workplaces where the LNU 1991 respondents were employed (see below: Workplace Survey (APU) 1991 and 2000) and LNU 1968–1991 – documentation).

Expanding the scope of the survey

A new Level-of-Living Survey (LNU 2000) was conducted in 2000. It was funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) through their joint committee for longitudinal research.

As part of LNU 2000, a separate study was also conducted among children and adolescents aged 10–18 living in the same household as the LNU respondent (see Child-LNU). If the respondent was married or cohabiting, a postal questionnaire was distributed to their partner (Partner-LNU 2000). A Workplace Survey (APU) was also conducted.

LNU 2010 was funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) and the Swedish Research Council (VR), and continued the LNU tradition established over six decades. In addition to the main survey, Partner-LNU (2010) and Child-LNU (2010) were conducted. The children who had been included in the Child-LNU sample in 2000 were also interviewed as adults in 2010 (Younger-LNU). A shorter questionnaire containing questions about personality was also linked to the survey.

LNU 2010 was the first wave of the survey to be conducted using a digital questionnaire.

For many years, the proportion of people born outside Sweden in the LNU sample was too small to allow reliable separate analyses of their living conditions. In LNU 2010, a separate survey was therefore conducted among a representative sample of people born outside Sweden and their children (LNU-UFB). Since the questions in LNU-UFB were the same as those in the regular LNU, the study provided greater opportunities to compare the living conditions of people born abroad with those of people born in Sweden.

LNU participants who have reached the age of 75 and are therefore no longer included in the sampling frame instead participate in the Swedish Longitudinal Study of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD), which has been conducted in 1992, 2002, 2004, 2011 and 2014.

Read more about SWEOLD

Influencing political and academic debates

The panel design of the LNU project provides greater opportunities to answer important questions about people’s living conditions. Only by following individuals over time can researchers determine, for example, how childhood conditions affect living conditions later in life, how working conditions influence health later in life, what consequences changes in family circumstances have, or how adult education affects the type of work people obtain.

Where respondents have given their consent, the interview data have been supplemented with register data, including information on income. The resulting data have enabled extensive descriptions and analyses of welfare in Sweden from the late 1960s to the early 2010s. These include analyses of how welfare has developed for men and women, how it is distributed across different age and social groups and family types, and how it varies between different types of residential areas.

The results have been published in more than sixty doctoral theses, numerous reports and hundreds of academic articles, primarily, although by no means exclusively, written by researchers affiliated with the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), which has been responsible for the LNU since 1972. From 1991 onwards, the survey has also included questions about what happened between the different survey waves, including dates for important life events such as entering into cohabitation and changing workplaces. This provides even greater opportunities to study individual life courses over time.

The findings have attracted considerable attention in Sweden and have served as an important knowledge base in political debate. Survey results have also played an important role in a number of policy decisions, including those concerning the retirement age, labour market policy, occupational health and safety legislation, and adult education.

Swedish welfare research has also attracted considerable interest in the international research community. For example, former President of the Academy of Finland, Professor Erik Allardt, wrote that Swedish social research had, through the Level-of-Living Surveys and their replications, in a sense established a strong position on the international research scene. Professor Aage Sørensen described the Level-of-Living Survey as the most important Swedish contribution to international social science since Gunnar Myrdal.

In 2010–2011, the sixth Swedish Level-of-Living Survey was conducted. A nationally representative sample of the adult population of Sweden, aged 18–75, was interviewed about their living conditions in a range of areas, including childhood conditions, family, health, education, finances, leisure, housing, social relations, employment and working conditions.

A total of 4,415 people responded, corresponding to 60.9 per cent of the sample (72.0 per cent when a shorter version of the questionnaire completed by some respondents is included).

In most cases, the interviews were conducted through home visits by interviewers from Statistics Sweden (SCB).

As in LNU 2000, a separate questionnaire containing questions for the LNU participant’s partner was distributed in connection with the interviews. Children of LNU participants living in the household, aged 9–18, were also interviewed using recorded questions and headphones (see Child-LNU).

The book Ojämlikhetens dimensioner (Evertsson & Magnusson, eds., 2014, Stockholm: Liber) presents findings and analyses based on LNU 2010 data.

Below you will find the LNU 2010 codebook in Swedish and English, as well as the questionnaire and technical report in Swedish.

Codebooks

Kodbok för LNU 2010 (Swedish) pdf, 3.9 MB.

Codebook for LNU 2010 (English) pdf, 4 MB.

Questionnaires

Svarsformulär LNU 2010 (questionnaire in Swedish) pdf, 1.2 MB.

Teknisk rapport LNU 2010 (technical report in Swedish) pdf, 2 MB.

LNU 2000 was the fifth Level-of-Living Survey. More than 5,000 Swedes were interviewed about their living conditions. The response rate was 76.6 per cent. LNU 2000 was funded by a major research grant from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) through their joint committee for longitudinal research.

In addition to the interviews conducted with the LNU sample, a shortened postal questionnaire was sent to the respondent’s spouse, partner or cohabiting partner. This complemented the picture of household welfare without requiring the respondent to answer questions about their partner. It also made it possible to examine whether respondents’ and their partners’ views differed on various issues. A total of 2,736 partners completed the questionnaire, corresponding to a response rate of 78.2 per cent of the 3,498 partners included.

The book Familj och arbete – vardagsliv i förändring (Bygren, Gähler & Nermo, 2004, Stockholm: SNS Förlag) analyses a range of sociological questions at the intersection of working life and family life using data from LNU 2000 and Partner-LNU 2000.

In connection with LNU 2000, children and adolescents aged 10–18 living in the respondent’s household were also interviewed (see Child-LNU).

A postal questionnaire was also sent to the managers or personnel managers of the LNU participants’ workplaces (see APU).

Documentation for LNU 2000, including codebooks in Swedish and English, questionnaires in Swedish and English, interviewer instructions in Swedish, and partner questionnaires in Swedish and English, is provided below.

Codebooks

Kodbok för LNU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 1 MB.

Codebook for LNU 2000 (English) pdf, 3.1 MB.

Questionnaires

In 2000, three different questionnaires were used for the main survey:

• NY questionnaire – for people participating in the LNU for the first time. This was the most comprehensive questionnaire and included questions about childhood, early education and other topics.
• PU questionnaire – for previous participants who were too young at the time to answer questions about their employment history.
• PS questionnaire – for people who had participated in several interview waves and who had also completed the employment-history questionnaire in 1991. In 2000, these respondents only needed to provide information about employment from 1990 onwards.

Questionnaires

NY-formulär LNU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 537.3 kB.

NY questionnaire LNU 2000 (English) pdf.

PU-formulär LNU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 887.5 kB.

PS-formulär LNU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 888.6 kB.

Partner questionnaire

Partnerformulär LNU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 364.4 kB.

Partner questionnaire LNU 2000 (English) pdf, 364.4 kB.

Interviewer instructions (all in Swedish)

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 2000 – del 1 pdf, 56.3 kB.

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 2000 – del 2 pdf, 39.2 kB.

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 2000 – del 3 pdf, 9.3 kB.

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 2000 – del 4 pdf, 53.8 kB.

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 2000 – del 5 pdf, 53.7 kB.

The first four surveys were conducted in 1968, 1974, 1981 and 1991. From 1974 onwards, the surveys were designed by SOFI. The interviews were conducted by Statistics Sweden (SCB).

Although the questionnaire and interview methods have developed over time, with some questions added and others removed, a large proportion of the variables are directly comparable across the different survey years.

A large proportion of respondents are part of a panel, making it possible to study developments in living conditions over time at the individual level. When individuals have fallen outside the sampling frame, they have been replaced by younger people and people born abroad in such a way that the samples have remained nationally representative.

The response rates for the Level-of-Living Surveys from 1968 to 1991 were 90.8 per cent (1968), 85.2 per cent (1974), 82.4 per cent (1981) and 79.1 per cent (1991).

In 1991, interviews were also conducted with the respondents’ managers or personnel managers (see Workplace Survey (APU) 1991 and 2000).

Results from the Level-of-Living Surveys have been presented and analysed, in addition to numerous academic articles, in the books Välfärd i förändring, levnadsvillkor i Sverige 1968–1981 (Eriksson & Åberg, eds., 1984, Stockholm: SOFI) and Vardagens villkor, levnadsförhållanden i Sverige under tre decennier (Fritzell & Lundberg, 1994, Stockholm: Brombergs förlag).

Codebooks and questionnaires in Swedish for LNU 1968–1991 are collected below. In most cases, questionnaires are also available in English.

LNU 1991

Codebook

Kodbok för LNU 1991 (Swedish) pdf, 671 kB.

Questionnaire

Svarsformulär LNU 1991 (Swedish) pdf, 340.8 kB.

Interviewer instructions

Intervjuarinstruktioner LNU 1991 (Swedish) pdf, 205.2 kB.

Response cards

Svarskort LNU 1991 (Swedish) pdf, 52 kB.

LNU 1981

Codebook

Kodbok LNU 1981 (Swedish) pdf.

Questionnaire

Svarsformulär LNU 1981 (Swedish) pdf.

Questionnaire LNU 1981 (English) pdf, 1.3 MB.

LNU 1974

Codebook

Kodbok LNU 1974 (Swedish) pdf.

Questionnaire

Svarsformulär LNU 1974 (Swedish) pdf.

LNU 1968

Codebook

Kodbok LNU 1968 (Swedish) pdf, 586 kB.

Questionnaire

Svarsformulär LNU 1968 (Swedish) pdf.

Questionnaire LNU 1968 (English) pdf, 1.5 MB.

For a long time, social science research on organisations, companies and working life lacked data based on large, nationally representative samples of companies and other workplaces. Samples covering more than one hundred workplaces have been very rare. As a result, studies in this field have seldom been able to claim representativeness.

The Workplace Survey (APU) 1991 was the first survey in Sweden to interview workplace managers and personnel managers who were part of a comprehensive nationally representative sample of workplaces.

The 1991 Workplace Survey was conducted by asking people who participated in LNU 1991 and were employed at workplaces with at least ten employees to provide the name, telephone number and address of their workplace. With the respondent’s consent, a telephone interview was then conducted with the senior manager at the workplace and, in some cases, with the person responsible for personnel matters. Data collection was carried out by Statistics Sweden.

The total sample consisted of 2,135 randomly selected workplaces with at least 50 employees. Interviews were conducted with representatives of 1,994 workplaces, corresponding to 93 per cent. The interview questions in the 1991 Workplace Survey covered a broad range of workplace characteristics, including market conditions, organisational structure, staff turnover, decision-making systems, forms of control, recruitment, training and wage-setting.

The 2000 Workplace Survey covered approximately 3,000 workplaces across Sweden and was conducted using postal questionnaires. The survey examined conditions in Swedish working life and companies, with a focus on personnel functions and management. As in 1991, APU 2000 was linked to LNU 2000, with the workplaces where LNU respondents were employed constituting the APU sample.

The social partners, including SAF (now the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise), LO, SACO and TCO, expressed their support for the survey and followed the reporting of its results with great interest. Consultation also took place with the business community’s Regulatory Review Board (NNR).

The results of the Workplace Survey have attracted attention through a large number of research reports and in the media. A more comprehensive presentation of the results can be found in: le Grand, C., R. Szulkin & M. Tåhlin (eds.) (1996). Sveriges arbetsplatser. Organisation, personalutveckling, styrning, second edition. Stockholm: SNS Förlag.

APU 2000

Questionnaire

Svarsformulär APU 2000 (Swedish) pdf, 78.3 kB.

When researchers at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) conducted Child-LNU for the first time in 2000, it was a pioneering study in Sweden. For many years, researchers had pointed to the problems associated with obtaining information about children through their parents and had emphasised the importance of giving children the opportunity to speak for themselves.

Child-LNU 2000 was therefore conducted following extensive preparatory work based on a British model.

The children, aged 10–18, listened to the questions on a tape recorder and entered their answers on a separate questionnaire. The interview method and questions worked better than expected, and the results from Child-LNU 2000 provided new insights and improved information about children’s living conditions. Following the success of the study, Statistics Sweden has included a child component in its annual Survey of Living Conditions (ULF) since 2001, with questions based on Child-LNU 2000.

The questions in Child-LNU were parallel to those asked of adults and were intended to shed light on the welfare and living conditions of young people. A total of 1,304 children and adolescents responded to the questionnaire.

In 2010, a follow-up interview was conducted with the children who had participated in Child-LNU 2000. The study, called Younger-LNU, also included their partners. Child-LNU has thus developed into a partly independent study that can address questions about how conditions during childhood affect living conditions later in life.

In connection with LNU 2010, data were again collected from children and adolescents aged 10–18 (born 1992–2000) living in the households of the main respondents. This time, the children were interviewed using a CD player through which the questions were read aloud while they recorded their answers on a questionnaire. This meant that no one else nearby could see how the children answered the questions.

The interview with the children took approximately 30 minutes and was conducted at the same time as their mother or father was interviewed by an SCB interviewer during a home visit.

A comprehensive presentation of the results from Child-LNU 2000 can be found in: Jonsson, J.O., Östberg, V., with Brolin Låftman, S. and Evertsson, M. (2001). Barns och ungdomars välfärd, Kommittén Välfärdsbokslut, SOU 2001:55. Stockholm: Fritzes.

Child-LNU 2000 and Child-ULF 2001-2003

Codebook

Kodbok Barn-LNU och Barn-ULF 2000-2003 (Swedish) pdf, 617.9 kB.

Questionnaires (all in Swedish)

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2000 – del 1 pdf, 87.2 kB.

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2000 – del 2 pdf, 97.3 kB.

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2000 – del 3 pdf, 97.1 kB.

Svarsformulär Barn-ULF 2002 pdf, 532.7 kB.

Child-LNU 2010

Codebook

Kodbok Barn-LNU 2000-2010 (Swedish) pdf, 181.1 kB.

Questionnaires (all in Swedish)

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2010 – del 1 pdf, 289.7 kB.

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2010 – del 2 pdf, 304.8 kB.

Svarsformulär Barn-LNU 2010 – del 3 pdf, 304.8 kB.

Younger-LNU 2010

Codebook

Kodbok Yngre-LNU 2010 (Swedish) pdf, 2.6 MB.