Study title

The survey charted the political knowledge of pupils in the final year class of upper secondary schools in the Turku region (Finland). The knowledge areas queried were basic political concepts, the political systems of Finland and the EU, and Finnish national economy. Opinions on politics and democracy were also surveyed. The data were collected as part of the research project "Knowledge of Politics in International Comparison 2007-2010" at the University of Turku. The same questions were presented in other surveys conducted by the project: FSD2499 Knowledge of Politics and Society 2008 and FSD2344 Knowledge of Politics and Society 2008: Turku Region Vocational Institutions 2007-2008. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Culture provided funding for the project. First, opinions on politics were charted. The respondents were asked how interested they were in politics, how much information they had received from various sources (e.g. from educational institutes at different levels, friends, home) to understand social and political issues, how close they felt to specific political parties or civic/voluntary organisations and on what grounds they made their party/candidate choice in elections. Further questions covered the perceived importance of voting in different elections, the respondent's political and civic participation and participation methods. The respondents also rated how important they held a number of sources to be for obtaining political and social information (e.g. television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, events, contacts with decision-makers, personal communication). Television, radio, newspaper and Internet use was charted as well as reasons for using the Internet. Next, political knowledge and knowledge of the Finnish political system were studied. The respondents were asked to assess the level of their own political and social knowledge. A number of questions explored knowledge on what the concepts of politics,...