The NORBALT Project: Comparative Studies of Living Conditions in the three Baltic Countries

Abstract

The NORBALT living conditions project consists of comprehensive livingcondition surveys that were conducted simultaneously in Estonia, Latviaand Lithuania in 1994 and 1999. The project was coordinated by FafoInstitute for Applied Social Science in Oslo, Norway, and implementedin cooperation with local partners. In this article we describe the NORBALTproject, and discuss some of the choices that were made in developing asurvey tool to be used for both in-depth descriptions of living conditionswithin individual countries, and analyses of cross-national and regionalvariation. The surveys were designed based on the Scandinavian model ofliving conditions analysis, but particular aspects important fortransition economies and specific regional aspects were also taken into account. In view of a possible future integration into the European Union,it has also been a goal to enable comparisons with established Europeansurveys. We argue that in cross-national surveys, due to language andcultural differences, objective indicators of living conditions aremore robust than subjective ones, and we recommend greater care ininterpretation of questions that ask for subjective evaluation.