The GGS-II Wave 2 questionnaire was restructured to include new thematic sections, with space allocated for user-driven innovations. In 2023, an open call invited researchers to submit new content modules. This paper presents the user module “Global Uncertainty and Institutional Trust”.

The purpose of the proposed survey items is to cover some elements that we consider related to increasing global uncertainties and decreasing levels of trust during the last decade, and which we think are related to ongoing and recent fertility change in Europe and much of the developed world. The survey items have been developed by a working group consisting of demographers in the five Nordic and some other countries and have been implemented in the existing GGSs in several Nordic countries. Research results of the items have been presented at international demography conferences. A slightly reduced version of the survey items has been approved for incorporation into the German GGS organized by FReDA.

The module introduces a novel and so far lacking perspective of subjective considerations to fertility and family research and contributes a core generational dimension to the GGS. The inclusion the survey items in the GGS of all GGP countries would make a powerful basis for comparative research on the role of uncertainties and trust in current demographic developments. For the countries that already included these survey items in the previous survey round, it offers the opportunity to follow developments of changing subjective considerations across time.