ifo Education Survey

Since 2014, at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education we conduct our own annual public opinion survey on education policy in Germany. Each year, it surveys about 4,000 participants who form a representative sample of the adult population in Germany on various topics of education policy. The collected data allow us to conduct research on the role of public opinion in the political economy of education policy. 

To study the effects of provided information on public opinion, we introduce the methodological feature of survey experiments: In addition to the respective opinion question which is the same for all respondents, randomly selected subgroups of respondents receive specific information. Comparing responses between the subgroups allows us to determine the causal effect of the respective information on public opinion. 

The thematic focus of the ifo Education Survey varies from year to year. The first survey in 2014 provided a first picture of what Germans think about education policy. The second survey in 2015 showed that Germans are open for many fundamental educational reforms. The third survey in 2016 focused on the opinions of teachers and on education measures to integrate refugees. The fourth survey in 2017 focused on public opinion on digitalization in the education system and on trends in the opinions of various education policy topics over a period of four years. The fifth survey in 2018 covered opinions on gender issues and equal opportunities in education and for the first time surveyed the opinions of youths. The sixth survey in 2019 studied the opinion of Germans on educational inequality. The seventh survey in 2020 dealt with topics of educational federalism and the corona crisis. The eighth survey in 2021 covered education policies to address societal challenges during and after Covid-19. The ninth survey in 2022 asked Germans about their opinions on lifelong learning, structural change, and the shortage of skilled workers, as well as on education measures to integrate Ukrainian refugees. The tenth survey in 2023 is dedicated to the topic of school quality. The eleventh survey in 2024 presents a comparison of federal states. The twelfth survey in 2025 focuses on social media. 

Here you can find a short non-technical overview on this topic. 

The data of the ifo Education Survey are available as scientific use files. 

Selected academic papers using data of the ifo Education Survey: 

Income Contingency and the Electorate’s Support for Tuition (with P. Lergetporer). Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, forthcoming [tweet] 

Earnings Information and Public Preferences for University Tuition: Evidence from Representative Experiments (with P. Lergetporer). Journal of Public Economics 226: 104968, 2023 [tweet]

Can Internet Surveys Represent the Entire Population? A Practitioners’ Analysis (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, L. Simon, and K. Werner). European Journal of Political Economy  78: 102382, 2023 [tweet]

The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education (with K. Werner). Economic Policy 38 (115): 609-668, 2023 [tweet1] [tweet2] [more on Covid]

The ifo Education Survey 2014-2021: A New Dataset on Public Preferences for Education Policy in Germany (with V. Freundl, E. Grewenig, F. Kugler, P. Lergetporer, R. Schüler, K. Wedel, K. Werner, and O. Wirth). Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik / Journal of Economics and Statistics 243 (6): 699-710, 2023 [tweet]

Incentives, Search Engines, and the Elicitation of Subjective Beliefs: Evidence from Representative Online Survey Experiments (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, and K. Werner). Journal of Econometrics 231 (1): 304-326, 2022 [tweet]

Does Ignorance of Economic Returns and Costs Explain the Educational Aspiration Gap? Representative Evidence from Adults and Adolescents (with P. Lergetporer and K. Werner). Economica 88 (351): 624-670, 2021 [tweet] [video]

COVID-19 and Educational Inequality: How School Closures Affect Low- and High-Achieving Students (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, K. Werner, and L. Zierow). European Economic Review 140: 103920, 2021 [tweet] [video]

Educational Inequality and Public Policy Preferences: Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments (with P. Lergetporer and K. Werner). Journal of Public Economics 188: 104226, 2020

Do Party Positions Affect the Public’s Policy Preferences? Experimental Evidence on Support for Family Policies (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, and K. Werner). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 179: 523-543, 2020

Information Provision and Preferences for Education Spending: Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments in three Countries (with M. Cattaneo, P. Lergetporer, G. Schwerdt, K. Werner, and S.C. Wolter). European Journal of Political Economy 63: 101876, 2020

How Information Affects Support for Education Spending: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Germany and the United States (with P. Lergetporer, G Schwerdt, K. Werner, and M.R. West). Journal of Public Economics 167: 138-157, 2018

Non-technical contribution: 

Public Opinion on Education Policy in Germany (with P. Lergetporer and K. Werner). In:  M.R. West, L. Woessmann (eds.), Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Education Policy around the World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 205-243, 2021

Survey article on the role of public opinion in the political economy of educational reforms:

Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Educational Reforms: A Survey (with M. Busemeyer and P. Lergetporer). European Journal of Political Economy 53: 161-185, 2018  

A comparison of German and US results: 

Is Seeing Believing? How Americans and Germans Think about their Schools (with M.B. Henderson, P. Lergetporer, P.E. Peterson, K. Werner, and M.R. West). In:  M.R. West, L. Woessmann (eds.), Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Education Policy around the World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 55-96, 2021

My GESIS Lecture on "The Political Economy of Education Policy: Results from the ifo Education Survey":

Material available only in German

The results of the ifo Education Survey are published each year in a contribution in the ifo Schnelldienst: 

Zwischen Likes und Lernen: Was Jugendliche und Erwachsene über Social Media denken; Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2025 (with K. Wedel, V. Freundl, and F. Pfaehler). ifo Schnelldienst 78 (9): 37-57, 2025 [post: X Bluesky LinkedIn]

Meinungen zum Bildungssystem im Bundesländervergleich – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2024 (with K. Werner, V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, and K. Wedel). ifo Schnelldienst 77 (9): 29-42, 2024 [tweet]

Was denken die Deutschen zu Chancenungleichheit im Bildungssystem? (with K. Werner, V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, and K. Wedel). ifo Schnelldienst 76 (11): 33-39, 2023 [tweet]

Wie unterscheidet sich das Meinungsbild zu Schulen zwischen den deutschen Regionen? Regionale Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2023 (with K. Werner, V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, and K. Wedel). ifo Schnelldienst 76 (10): 29-34, 2023 [tweet]

Was die Deutschen über die Qualität der Schulen denken – Ergebnisse des zehnten ifo Bildungsbarometers 2023 (with K. Werner, V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, and K. Wedel). ifo Schnelldienst 76 (9): 37-50, 2023 [tweet]

Bildungspolitische Maßnahmen zur Integration der Geflüchteten aus der Ukraine – Was die Deutschen befürworten (with V. Freundl, F. Kugler, K. Wedel, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 75 (9): 70-74, 2022

Deutsche befürworten Weiterbildung, um mit dem Strukturwandel Schritt zu halten – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2022 (with V. Freundl, F. Kugler, P. Lergetporer, K. Wedel, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 75 (9): 56-69, 2022

Bildungspolitik zur Bewältigung gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen während und nach Corona – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2021 (with V. Freundl, E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 74 (9): 27-40, 2021

Deutsche sind für mehr Einheitlichkeit und Vergleichbarkeit im Bildungssystem – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2020 (with P. Lergetporer, V. Freundl, E. Grewenig, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 73 (9): 40-48, 2020

Bildung in der Coronakrise: Wie haben die Schulkinder die Zeit der Schulschließungen verbracht, und welche Bildungsmaßnahmen befürworten die Deutschen? (with V. Freundl, E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, K. Werner, and L. Zierow). ifo Schnelldienst 73 (9): 25-39, 2020

Was die Deutschen über Bildungsungleichheit denken: Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2019 (with P. Lergetporer, E. Grewenig, S. Kersten, F. Kugler and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 72 (17): 27-41, 2019

Was denken die Deutschen zu Geschlechterthemen und Gleichstellung in der Bildung? Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2018 (with P. Lergetporer, E. Grewenig, S. Kersten, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 71 (17): 15-30, 2018

Denken Jugendliche anders über Bildungspolitik als Erwachsene? (with P. Lergetporer, E. Grewenig, S. Kersten, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 71 (17): 31-45, 2018

Fürchten sich die Deutschen vor der Digitalisierung? Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2017 (with Philipp Lergetporer, Elisabeth Grewenig, Franziska Kugler, and Katharina Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 70 (17): 17-38, 2017 

Denken Lehrkräfte anders über die Bildungspolitik als die Gesamtbevölkerung? Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2016 (with P. Lergetporer, F. Kugler, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 69 (17): 19-34, 2016 

Bildungsmaßnahmen zur Integration der Flüchtlinge – Was die Deutschen befürworten (with P. Lergetporer, F. Kugler, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 69 (17): 35-43, 2016 

Deutsche sind zu grundlegenden Bildungsreformen bereit – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2015 (with P. Lergetporer, F. Kugler, L. Oestreich, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 68 (17): 29-50, 2015 

Was die Deutschen über die Bildungspolitik denken – Ergebnisse des ersten ifo Bildungsbarometers (with P. Lergetporer, F. Kugler, and K. Werner). ifo Schnelldienst 67 (18): 16-33, 2014 

Selected Interviews: 

Erstaunlich modern. Die Zeit, 20.9.2018, No. 39, p. 70, 2018 

Massiver Widerstand. Die Zeit, 15.9.2016, No. 39, p. 74, 2016 

Wie sich die Deutschen ihre Schule wünschen. Augsburger Allgemeine, 16.9.2016, p. 4 

500 Euro pro Semester – Wieso das Bezahlstudium gerecht ist. Die Zeit, 3.9.2015, No. 36, p. 66, 2015  

A contribution in Der Spiegel about the results of the first ifo Education Survey: 

Bitte sitzen bleiben. Der Spiegel, 15.9.2014, No. 38, p. 48-49, 2014

Contribution about the results of the ifo Education Survey: 

Deutsche wollen Zentralabitur. Beitrag auf Spiegel Online vom 1.9.2015 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2015

Das denken die Deutschen über ihre Lehrer. Beitrag auf Spiegel Online vom 14.9.2016 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2016

Deutsche für mehr Digitalunterricht an Grundschulen. Beitrag auf Spiegel Online vom 14.9.2017 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2017

Wenn Kinder aus der Schule plaudern. Beitrag in der Süddeutschen Zeitung vom 13.9.2018 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2018 zu den Meinungen Jugendlicher

Girls Day ja, Teilzeit für Väter nein. Beitrag auf Zeit.de vom 13.9.2018 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2018 zu Gleichstellungsthemen

Mehrheit der Deutschen gegen gezielte Förderung von benachteiligten Kindern. Beitrag auf Spiegel Online vom 28.8.2019 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2019

Mehrheit will weniger Flickenteppich. Beitrag auf Spiegel Online vom 2.9.2020 zu den Ergebnissen des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2020