2023 Survey on Assistance Dogs in Europe
2023 Survey on Assistance Dogs in Europe
In 2013 the European Guide Dog Federation (EGDF) conducted the first comprehensive survey of guide dogs in Europe.
The purpose of this survey was to establish the number of guide dogs in geographical Europe to enable EGDF to plan and develop appropriate services for the guide and assistance dog community.
This survey was supported by the European Commission who awarded a grant for the work, allowing EGDF to engage the services of a professional researcher.
The research at the time was difficult, of the 116 guide dog schools identified by the research in Europe, only 47 - 40% responded. Some schools declined to comment, citing medical confidentiality, GDPR regulations or because they had already reported the information to the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) or Assistance Dogs International (ADI).
Despite these limitations, the results of this 2013 survey were very well received and the report was quoted in many other studies.
The intention had been to repeat the survey in 2019, however, several factors including ill health of the Executive Director of EGDF, the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit delayed the subsequent survey until 2023.
This time, as a UK based charity EGDF were not eligible for a European Commission grant.
The 2023 survey was conducted using our network of member organisations with board members responsible for co-ordinating the circulation of the questionnaire in designated geographical areas.
The survey was launched using a Microsoft 365 Forms questionnaire on 1st December 2023 and closed on 30th April 2024
EGDF contacted both IGDF and ADI and asked for the data from the information they collect at the end of each year from their member schools, so that this could be cross referenced and combined with the results that EGDF gathered. Both organisations agreed on the proviso that the information would not identify individual schools, and where they only had one member in a country, they would need permission to share the information.
EGDF also used their network of contacts in countries where national regulations allow for other means of accrediting guide and assistance dogs to establish the optimum data.
Within the questions in the survey, the respondents were asked if they were members of either IGDF or ADI, or both. This enabled us to subsequently cross reference the data and ensure that there was no ‘double counting’
The EGDF survey asked for numbers at the end of 2023, matching the time scale of the IGDF and ADI data gathering.
EGDF received responses from 55 organisations (47 in the initial survey and few additional responses after the original deadline date of 31st March 2024) and combined and cross referenced the information with that from IGDF and ADI and other country organisations as detailed above.
Of course, the results of the 2023 survey are dependent upon the responses of those people that were contacted, and if no response was forthcoming, it could not be included.
However, EGDF believe that this is the most inclusive survey of the number of guide and assistance dogs in geographical Europe at the end of 2023
