781. Israel Social Survey 2002
Source: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

Starting in 2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics has been conducting the Social Survey - a new continuing survey carried out annually on a sample of persons aged 20 and older. In many ways, the new survey resembles the well-established General Social Survey (GSS) and the new European Social Survey. The Survey integrates factual data, typically collected in other CBS surveys, with attitudes regarding these facts. Thus, it measures both objective and subjective well-being across time. The questionnaire for each wave of the Social Survey consists of two parts: a set of core questions repeated annually, covering the respondent's situation in the principal areas of social life (family, health, education, work, etc.) and his or her evaluation of their situation, and a variable module which focuses on a different policy-relevant topic each survey year. In the 2002 it investigated retirement issues.

Interesting investigated topics are: detailed housing conditions, social and family relations, patterns of leisure activities, volunteering, health and disability, helping parents, victimization, self-definition of religiosity and environmental quality. Questionnaires are administered by CBS interviewers using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI), in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian. N=6,967.

The Social Survey is based on a sample of persons aged 20 or older, and the estimates provided by the weighted frequencies are estimates of persons. These estimates will not be identical to those obtained from other sample surveys conducted by the ICBS, including those based on samples of households, or from estimates that are not based on sample surveys. Therefore, care should be exercised in making comparisons between estimates obtained from the Social Survey and those obtained from other surveys.

ISDC has divided the dataset into two files coupled by CASEID. One file consists of the core questionnaires and the other includes the retirement questionnaires. Users can request either the core questionnaires or both files. An online table generator of the core questionnaire is available at the CBS website. It is also accessible through Fast Analysis. A more detailed MUC version will soon be released by the Central Bureau of Statistics.