Excluding people over 80 years old from the surveys skews the representativeness of the data and causes a feeling of incompetence for the growing senior population.
Citizens polls measuring opinions are in the public domain almost every week. Whether it's presidential elections, social security reforms, citizens' concerns or some other theme, polls often have social significance.
Through polls, citizens' opinion becomes visible also in times other than elections, and the results may even have an impact on politics, as happened with Finland's decision to join NATO.
Surveys however, there is a problem with the practices: why are citizens over 80 years old left out? There are approximately 327,000 people in Finland who have reached the age of 80. This is seven percent of the adult population, and the number is growing all the time.
Typically, opinion poll samples use an age limit of 15–79 or 18–79 years. Of course, the retirement age has risen over the decades, because even in the 1970s, many opinion surveys were limited to people under 65, and even in the middle of the 2000s, the limit was often 74.
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There is no reason to exclude a significant part of those entitled to vote from the polls.
The upper age limit of the surveys has been justified for two reasons: one is that the oldest generations have not been considered very interesting target groups in the marketing mind, and the second justification is the assumed functional capacity of elderly people. Both arguments should be examined critically. Limiting surveys to the outside skews the representativeness of the material and causes a feeling of incompetence for the growing senior population.
In some the latest surveys, for example the November presidential survey conducted by Taloustukkimas for Yle, already include 80-year-olds. However, there are only 29 of them in the sample, i.e. 1.9 percent of the sample size. This is a step in the right direction, but older people should be included in population-representative surveys on a regular basis.
People over 18 have the right to vote, so there is no reason to exclude a significant part of those entitled to vote from surveys. The casting error that has plagued opinion polls for decades must finally be fixed.
Juho Rahkonen
opinion researcher, doctor of social sciences, Nurmijärvi
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