Working with socio-scientific issues (SSI) is often said to be a successful way to engage students in science. Moreover it is said to make science relevant outside the school context. Work with SSI presupposes and may develop students’ competences as problem-solving, information literacy and argumentation. But what students does SSI suit? SSI-tasks deal with incomplete information, contain conflicting perspectives and media reports in this field are often biased. This means that students have to understand the context to interpret the tasks. In this study we compare how students from areas with different socio-economic status (SES) are able to deal with complex tasks, in which the students are supposed to retrieve information on their own. Our hypothesis is that so called mainstream students are more likely than non-mainstream-students to encounter ways of dealing with complex issues since they are continuous with mainstream students’ habits at home. The research questions are: What differences are there between the two groups of students in their experiences of working with SSI? How do they use different sources to solve their tasks? The data consists of questionnaires from 20 classes, 400 students and 20 teachers, in compulsory school in Sweden. 10 classes are from schools in areas characterized by low SES and high ethnic diversity. The other 10 classes are from areas with medium or high SES and low ethnic diversity, which means that the inhabitants are mostly ethnic Swedes. Criteria used for categorization in SES-groups are income, media use, employment level, educational level and family structure. The data are statistically processed during spring 2008. The study is a part of a larger study on what impact SSI have on Swedish students’ interest and learning.