What is Balkan Barometer?

Balkan Barometer is an annual survey of public opinion and business sentiments in six Western Balkan economies, commissioned by the Regional Cooperation Council. It examines aspirations and expectations of life and work, prevalent socio-economic and political trends & regional and European integration. The first Balkan Barometer was launched in 2015 and the RCC has issued it annually ever since, and the 2023 edition with be the ninth one. While originally launched as one of the tools measuring the impact of regional actions implemented under the South East Europe (SEE) 2020 Strategy, the Balkan Barometer is now firmly established as a reliable source of regional data widely employed and referenced by media, businesses, civil society and decision-makers alike. It remains an independent guide to attitudes towards cooperation and integration, as well as attitudes to other key policy areas both at domestic and regional levels that affect daily lives of the Western Balkan citizens and businesses.

The combination of the wide range of topics covered consistently over time, the regularity of publications and geographical coverage of the Western Balkans makes the Balkan Barometer a unique source of knowledge and information in the region, reflecting the global and regional trends as well. Since its first edition, the Balkan Barometer has increasingly evolved in order to remain relevant and up-to-date in a challenging regional landscape. Questions are adjusted every year to be more useful in reading and interpreting trends across the region, thereby making the Balkan Barometer an independent guide to attitudes towards cooperation and integration, as well as attitudes to other key policy areas both at domestic and regional levels, that affect daily lives of the Western Balkan citizens.

How are Balkan Barometer surveys organised?

Answers by survey respondents have been collected, systemized, analysed and presented in two reports – Public Opinion Survey and Business Opinion Survey. The analysis of the results provides a detailed insight into trends and evolution of attitudes of thousands of region’s citizens and businesses across socio-economic-environmental topics affecting their everyday lives.

In 2020, Balkan Barometer also had a special edition carrying data on Covid-19 impact assessment. A year later, in 2021, as a special edition adding to Balkan Barometer the RCC issued the first SecuriMeter, a survey focusing on security issues only. Now, SecuriMeter is a self-standing survey and the third edition will be launched this autumn.

The Balkan Barometer Public Opinion 2023 - methodological approaches

The 2023 edition of the Balkan Barometer Public Opinion Survey was conducted as a quantitative research and data were collected using CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) data collection method. The interviews were carried out via direct, face-to-face household interviews by trained interviewers from Indago-led consortium of research companies between 3 March – 4 April 2023 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Questionnaire

The Public Opinion Survey questionnaire was composed of a total of 79 questions, including the demographic questions. The questionnaire was originally written in English, and subsequently translated into related local languages. Since CAPI methodology was used in the research, all questionnaires were programmed/converted to a digital form to include necessary scripting and interviewers’ instructions, and installed on interviewers’ laptops/tablets. The programmed questionnaires were reviewed by a responsible person in each economy.

Sample sizes and selection

Public Opinion Survey was conducted on at least N=1,000 respondents aged 18+ in each of 6 (six) economies, with the total of 6,027 respondents for the entire Western Balkan region.
In order to obtain the same structure of the population, the sample was stratified according to the region or economy first. The number of respondents was calculated proportionally, based on the number of inhabitants in each size of settlements or municipality, either urban or rural, in the region/county, while the number of sampling points was defined based on the obtained number of respondents. Average maximum number of respondents per one sampling point was 10.

The Balkan Barometer Business Opinion 2023 - methodological approaches

The 2023 edition of the Balkan Barometer Business Opinion Survey was conducted as a quantitative research and data were collected by using CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) data collection method. The interviews were carried out via direct, face-to-face interviews by trained interviewers from Indago-led consortium of research companies between 3 March – 4 April 2023 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Questionnaire

The Business Opinion Survey questionnaire was composed of around 80 questions, including those on business demographics. The questionnaire was originally written in English and subsequently translated into related local languages.

Sample size and selection

Business Opinion Survey was conducted among a minimum of N=200 respondents – business owners, managers and senior executives, in each economy, with a total of 1,211 respondents for the entire Western Balkans.
The survey encompassed:

• companies of various sizes
• various business areas
• companies which are not majority owned  by the government,
• companies established earlier than 2020.