Methodology:

Survey methodology was chosen for the study, due to the need to access a large number of respondents in an efficient and standardised manner in a number of European countries. The survey was constructed so that respondents could easily access the questionnaire in electronic form, using the internet, and submit their responses easily. To ensure as a wide a potential audience as possible, the survey was made available in several electronic formats (e.g. PDF and HTML) as well as several languages (e.g. English, Portuguese, Greek, German, Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian). Pilot work was conducted before the survey was finally administered. Draft surveys were distributed to 38 testers in six countries (UK, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia). As a result, alterations were made to the initial draft to ensure its format and content were appropriate. These alterations included ensuring similar response formats across different language versions and addressing political sensitivities concerning the naming of certain countries.

The final version of the questionnaire (see appendix 1) consisted of questions probing socio-demographic characteristics and spatial issues (urban vs. rural location; nature of household), energy consumption characteristics (payment of bills, nature of energy sources used in the home); environmental concern (measured using the New Ecological Paradigm) and activism; and, finally, specific levels of awareness and attitudes towards three main types of energy resource: fossil-fuels, nuclear energy and renewable energy. To investigate the extent of respondents’ understanding of energy issues, a question was posed requiring respondents to indicate which of the following energy sources can be described as ‘renewable’.

The list of sources included several specific forms of renewable energy, such as biomass and geothermal energy, as well as nuclear energy and several specific forms of fossil-fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil). Finally, the survey contained a section measuring attitudes to each form of energy sources, utilising a grid with thirteen specific dimensions. These dimensions were designed to probe several aspects of energy generation and use, including economics, environmental impacts, technical reliability, safety and general evaluations of benefit at local and European levels.

There were 1866 respondents to the survey. Of these, the majority (61.9%) was aged 19- 34; and the remainder was mainly aged between 35 and 50 (24.8%). Thus, it was the case that 87% of respondents were aged between 19 and 50 years. There were slightly more males (57.5%) than females (42.5%). In terms of occupation, the majority were employed (68.2%) with a significant minority as university students (23.1%). Education levels mirrored the occupation and age statistics, with 50.5% of the sample reaching university education and 20.9% post-graduate level. Most respondents (88.2%) lived in either urban or suburban areas.

A wide range of households were represented in the sample, with 19.5% living on their own, 28.7% living as a couple or with 2+ adults; 32.5% living as a couple with children and 15% living as an extended family. The majority (71.4%) owned the homes that they lived in, with a significant minority living as tenants (28.6%). Thus the sample may be characterised as mostly young, urban and well-educated, living in a variety of household types, with a very small proportion of the low-educated, the elderly or rural dwellers.

84.4% of the total sample of 1866 respondents came from seven European countries. Respondents from these specific countries form the basis for cross-national comparisons conducted in the data analyses. Descriptive statistics for respondents by country of residence are summarised in the table below.

Table 2: Country of residence of respondents

	%	n
United Kingdom	10.0	186
Austria	5.9	110
Greece	18.1	337
Portugal	13.1	245
Hungary	17.5	326
Slowakia	10.8	202
Romania	9.1	169
Others	15.6	291
Total	100.0	1866

Analysis of socio-demographic characteristics by specific country indicated that respondents held generally above-average education levels, with for example 88% of UK respondents being educated to university or post-graduate level. This bias reflects the methodologies used by project partners to market and promote survey response. Although lower education levels were reported by respondents from Austria and Greece, the predominant exception was respondents from Romania, where only 17% of respondents had been educated to university level.

The research employed a comparative research design, investigating differences between samples of respondents residing in several European countries. In these analyses, the null hypotheses typically assumed thatrespondents from different countries would not differ in levels of understanding and attitudes towards energy sources, with similarity particularly between Eastern European and Western European countries.