Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Northern Ireland Assembly Candidate Survey, 2003 sought to gather information from candidates for the Northern Ireland Assembly election of that year, on a range of subjects, and also to determine their opinions on a number of key issues affecting Northern Ireland.

A separate study, the Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study, 2003, conducted with a sample of the electorate by a Northern Ireland-based research team, is held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) under SN 5394.

An earlier study conducted by the same Principal Investigator, the Irish General Election, 2002: the Candidates, is also held under SN 4618.


Main Topics:

Respondents were asked to identify what issues they felt were most important within their campaign, for their constituency, and for the country. They were also able to locate themselves on a number of different attitude scales within the questionnaire relating to six different policy areas: economic growth vs. environment; social and economic justice; morality and religion; Northern Ireland; the European Union; and minority groups.