Andrus Saar

Andrus Saar (21 November 1946 – 28 May 2015) was an Estonian sociologist, media scholar, lecturer and public-opinion researcher. He founded and led the survey-research company Saar Poll and was closely associated with the development of Estonian media research, public-opinion polling, and comparative values studies.

Life and career Saar was born in Viljandi. A European Commission profile noted that he took part in numerous international comparative studies dealing with values, social justice, quality of life, discrimination, poverty and health, and that he regularly communicated the results of such research to the Estonian public through radio, television and print media. A later policy report on Estonian values research credited Saar with conducting Estonia's values-study fieldwork in 1990, 1999, 2008 and 2011.

Saar also worked in sociology of religion. He contributed the chapter Eestimaalane ja tema usk sotsioloogi pilgu läbi to the 2012 Estonian Council of Churches collection Astu alla rahva hulka, a volume devoted to religion and worldviews in Estonia. In 2010 the European Commission appointed him one of Estonia's ambassadors for the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

Selected publications Massiteabevahendid ja avalik arvamus (with Juhan Kivirähk, 1987). Ausalt ja avameelselt: Stagnast perestroikasse. Avalikust arvamusest aastail 1984–1989 (1989). Ett ryktes anatomi (with Göran Stütz and Eino Tubin, 1991). När alla lyssnade på radio: Moskvakuppen från Estlands horisont (with Göran Stütz and Eino Tubin, 1992).