This report describes the design and realisation of the Neighbourhood Survey 2020, within the research program “The Neighbourhood Revisited: Spatial polarization and social cohesion in contemporary Sweden”, directed by Bo Malmberg at the Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University. The program, in which the survey is one of the main information sources, is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ), grant registration number M18-0214:1. 

The overarching aim of the survey was to provide the program’s research team with recent tailor-made data, to enable empirical investigations of how spatial polarization may lead to a society that is increasingly divergent in terms of attitudes, values and lifestyles. To this end, the survey was based on a stratified sample of individuals (age 18–80) in 10 different types of residential areas in Sweden. This predefined geographic demarcation of the sample—in the report referred to as the ‘neighbourhood clusters’— stems from an empirically grounded classification developed earlier in the research program. The survey was administered by Statistics Sweden, and 4,784 residents completed the survey (either online or on paper), corresponding to a total response rate of 24 per cent. 

This report details the background of the survey, as an integrated and integral part of the overall research program. Methodological details concerning the neighbourhood clusters are also provided, whereby the linkage between identified clusters and the sampling frame is elaborated. Furthermore, the construction of the questionnaire is described, along with the actual implementation of the survey. Importantly, the quality of the data obtained is also assessed in terms of measurements, coverage, and non-response.