Where left and right go without saying — and where they don’t

Share of respondents who decline to place themselves on the 0–10 left–right scale (“don't know” or refused), by country, pooled ESS rounds 1–11.

Western Europe Post-communist Europe Other (Israel, Turkey)

Takeaway: in the most engaged Western publics fewer than 1 in 20 decline — Norway 2.8 percent. In much of the post-communist east it is 1 in 3 or more — Ukraine 40 percent. Pooled, non-placement is 11 percent in the West against 28 in the post-communist east.

Non-placement = weighted share with lr_scale missing; the item is fielded in every round, so missingness is genuine “don't know”/refusal, not an unasked question. Countries with fewer than 500 respondents are dropped. Weighted by anweight. Source: European Social Survey rounds 1–11, 2002–2023.

Who leans left, who leans right — Western Europe, 2002–2023

Mean left–right self-placement (0 = Left, 10 = Right) by group, across ESS rounds. 5 is the exact midpoint. Choose a lens.

Lines colored by where each group sits: blue below the midpoint of 5, red above it. The education and income tabs are restricted to the rounds in which those items were fielded (rounds 5–11 and 4–11). Cells with effective N below 100 are dropped. Weighted by anweight. Source: European Social Survey, Western Europe.

Brahmin left, Merchant right

Mean left–right self-placement by education × household-income tercile, Western Europe, ESS rounds 5–11 pooled. Blue = left, red = right.

Takeaway: the most left-leaning Europeans are the highly educated on low incomes (4.30); the most right-leaning are the least educated on high incomes (5.09). Read down any column, more education means more left; read across any row, more income means more right.

Each cell is the weighted mean lr_scale for that education×income combination, pooled over rounds 5–11 (where both items are fielded); cell effective Ns range from about 1,900 to 12,200. Weighted by anweight. Source: European Social Survey, Western Europe.