Thursday, 14 November 2002

According to a new opinion survey, the Nordic populations believe that the Danes are the most hostile towards foreign nationals in their region. As much as 38 percent of the Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Danes interviewed said that Danes are hostile to foreigners.

According to the poll, Danes are slightly worse than Finns, who were voted for by 34 percent of those questioned, while 22 percent believe that Norwegians are hostile towards foreigners and only 11 percent believe that Swedes are.

On the other hand, 58 percent thought that the Swedes are friendly toward foreigners. In comparison, 28 percent believe that the Danes and Norwegians are friendly towards them. Only 13 percent think that the Finns are friendly towards foreigners, and this is clearly consistent with Finland's position as the Nordic country that accepts the fewest refugees.

"The figures reflect the attention paid by the media to the tightening of the Danish rules in the refugee and immigration area, especially on the other side of the Sound in Sweden," says Mads Stenbjerre, Research Director. "The Swedes’ perception of the Danes is much more negative than that of the other Nordic populations. As much as 62 percent of the Swedes questioned thought that Danes are hostile towards foreigners, while only 24 percent of Finns and 28 percent of Norwegians held this opinion."

For further commentary, please contact Mads Stenbjerre at ms@zapera.com or +45 2673 0696.

About the study: This study was conducted from 6-16 August 2002. A total of 1,000 persons over the age of 15 in each country (DK, SE, NO, FI) were interviewed. All the respondents were selected from Zapera’s Nordic Internet panel of more than 62,000 members. The respondents were selected on the basis of each country’s demographic breakdown by sex, age and geography.

Zapera A/S is the leading Internet-based market research institute in the Nordic countries with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. Zapera is a full-service market research institute that conducts opinion polls, media tests, client satisfaction studies and many other types of study. Zapera’s online panel consists of more than 62,000 individuals throughout the Nordic region. Zapera cooperates with Aston Group, GfK and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Zapera has conducted projects for Carlsberg, Nordea, SAS, Arla and others. Zapera is the first market research institute to receive an IT security certification from PricewaterhouseCoopers in order to ensure the integrity of its clients’ and respondents’ IT facilities.