The SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg has launched a new interactive data analysis tool that allows users to explore nearly four decades of Swedish public opinion data online. Developed in collaboration with the data visualisation company Datastory, the platform provides open access to hundreds of survey variables from the national SOM surveys.
The tool, launched in early December 2025, includes around 600 question variables spanning 39 years of surveys. It is designed to make complex survey data easier to find, analyse, and visualise for a broad audience – including journalists, teachers, students, policymakers, and members of the general public.
“This is a resource many people have been asking for”, says Marcus Weissenbilder, survey manager at the SOM Institute.
Supporting Universities’ Public Mission
The launch is closely tied to what is known in Sweden as the universities’ “third mission”: sharing knowledge beyond academia. While large amounts of research data exist, access and usability often remain barriers for non-specialists.
“At SOM, we have always placed great importance on making our research publicly available”, Weissenbilder states. The surveys themselves rely on public participation, and the institute regularly publishes reports, anthologies, and briefings for journalists, politicians, and the wider public.
However, with decades of accumulated data, specific insights have often remained buried in large datasets that are difficult to navigate. The new platform aims to change that by offering fast, interactive analysis inspired by tools such as Gapminder and Our World in Data.
From Politics to Everyday Life
Users can visualise results as timelines, bar charts, or tables and filter them by demographic and socioeconomic variables. This makes it possible to conduct tailored analyses without advanced statistical skills.
Among the newly accessible material are long-term time series on public attitudes toward political parties dating back to the mid-1980s, as well as more detailed breakdowns of what Swedes consider the most important societal problems. The tool also makes it possible to track public trust in different media outlets – such as public service, commercial television, radio, and newspapers – as well as how often people consume news across different media types.
Beyond politics and media, the platform includes lighter, everyday-life questions, such as whether respondents ate breakfast outside the home during the past year. Data from 2001 to 2013 show that eating breakfast out became increasingly associated with higher household income during that period.
A Complement to Existing Data Access
The SOM Institute emphasises that the new tool complements, rather than replaces, existing access routes. Researchers and students can still order and work directly with full datasets via researchdata.se, and all publications remain searchable through the institute’s website.
By lowering the threshold for data use, the institute hopes the tool will contribute to more evidence-based, nuanced discussions in society – whether in classrooms, newsrooms, or around the dinner table.
“We hope as many people as possible will benefit from it”, Weissenbilder concludes.
About the SOM Institute
The SOM Institute is an independent research organisation based at the University of Gothenburg that has conducted surveys on Swedish public opinion since 1986. Focusing on society, opinion, and media, the institute studies citizens’ attitudes, behaviours, and trust while also advancing survey methodology. Through its annual SOM surveys and the Swedish Citizen Panel, the institute functions as a national research infrastructure, providing widely used data that enable longitudinal analysis and are frequently cited in Swedish media.
Image: SOM Institute