Abstract:

In 1969 Reader's Digest conducted a study of the economic and social life of sixteen countries across Europe. The results were published in 1970 under the title of "A Survey of Europe Today". With the advent of the Single European market, the company decided it would be appropriate to repeat and update the earlier study as a contribution of interest to marketers, government agencies, economic planners and academic researchers. In 1990 a comparative study was conducted in seventeen countries. This study has been published under the title of "Eurodata 1990". This paper, after the brief technical description of Eurodata 1990 goes on to describe some of the more interesting findings, drawing on the data from the 1969 study to discuss the changes that have occurred during the intervening period.