The Public Administration Barometer at the University of Helsinki is a long-term, non-commercial research infrastructure designed to support high-quality social science research. It is implemented as an online panel that surveys civil servants in the ministries of the Finnish central administration on a regular basis. The barometer provides researchers with valuable data to study the perspectives, values, and experiences of public officials, as well as the broader factors that shape governance and decision-making in Finland.
The Public Administration Barometer is part of the wider Societal Barometers initiative, which also includes barometers directed at politicians and citizens. Together, these instruments make it possible to analyse similarities and differences between political elites, public administrators, and the general population, offering a comprehensive picture of governing in Finland.
Panel members are invited to respond to short surveys a couple of times per year. The surveys typically take only 5-7 minutes to complete and cover a wide range of themes relevant to social sciences and humanities research. These may include questions about policy preferences, administrative practices, trust in institutions, or attitudes towards societal change. By collecting data repeatedly from the same respondents, the barometer allows researchers to follow developments over time and to identify how views and experiences evolve in response to political, social, and economic events.
The Public Administration Barometer is part of the University of Helsinki Societal Barometer research infrastructure and is maintained by the
Participation in the barometer is entirely voluntary. All responses are treated with strict confidentiality, and no individual civil servant can be identified in research publications. The barometer’s purpose is to generate reliable, scientifically grounded knowledge that can benefit both academic research and public debate about the role of administration in society.