2.4 The Netherlands

The LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences) consists of 4500 households, comprising 7000 individuals. The panel is based on a true probability sample of households drawn from the population register by Statistics Netherlands. Panel members complete online questionnaires every month of about 15 to 30 minutes in total. They are paid for each completed questionnaire.

The LISS panel is intended for scientific, policy or socially relevant research. The quality and the coverage of the sample is of prime concern. To establish the LISS panel, a traditional random sample was drawn from the population registers, in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS). This sample includes people without an Internet connection. All people in the sample were approached in traditional ways (by letter, followed by telephone call and/or house visit) with an invitation to participate in the panel.

A full description of the original sample, the recruitment process and the recruitment response is given here (pdf). The LISS panel has been in full operation since October 2007, and all data are made available through the LISS data archive.

Sample: panel members aged 16 years or older
Overview of the response:
Selected number of household members: 7318 (100%)
Non-response: 1696 (23.2%)
Response: 5622 (76.8%)
Complete: 5489 (75.0%)
Incomplete: 133 ( 1.8%)