To enhance access to its public opinion polling data from 1973 to the present, the European Commission has just released an interactive search system, interrogating a database of results for 56 core questions which have been run over the years. The system can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/cf/cf_new/index.cfm
The tool is simple to use, in three sequential steps, involving the choice from drop-down menus of: a) the question and, where applicable, the sub-question; b) the country or countries; and c) the survey year(s) and wave(s). The query is then run, with display options for the topline results as a graph, pie chart, column chart or Excel table.
The 56 questions do not include any on religion which have been inserted principally as background variables, for example, religious affiliation or attendance at religious services. So far as I can see, the available religion-related information for the UK in the database currently comprises:
Question 37: Attitudes to Turkey (a mainly Muslim country) as a prospective member of the European Union. The question has been asked on 11 occasions in 1996-97, 1999-2001, 2005-06 and 2008.
Question 44: Trust in religious (and other) institutions. The question has been asked on five occasions in 2003-07.
Question 55: Assessment of the state of relations between people from different cultural or religious backgrounds. The question has been asked once, in 2008.
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