World Values Survey

The World Values Survey is a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change. It has carried out representative national surveys of the basic values and beliefs of publics in more than 65 societies on all six inhabited continents, containing almost 80 percent of the world's population. It builds on the European Values Surveys, first carried out in 1981. A second wave of surveys, designed for global use, was completed in 1990-1991, a third wave was carried out in 1995-1996 and a fourth wave is taking place in 1999-2001. This investigation has produced evidence of gradual but pervasive changes in what people want out of life, and the basic direction of these changes is, to some extent, predictable. This study has given rise to more than 300 publications, in 16 languages.

This project is being carried out by an international network of social scientists, with local funding for each survey (though in some cases, it has been possible to raise supplementary funds from outside sources). In exchange for providing the data from interviews with a representative national sample of at least 1,000 people in their own society, each participating group gets immediate access to the data from all of the other participating societies. Thus, they are able to compare the basic values and beliefs of the people of their own society with those of more than 60 other societies. In addition, they are invited to international meetings at which they can compare findings and interpretations with other members of the WVS network.

The project is guided by a steering committee representing all regions of the world. Coordination and distribution of data are based at the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan, under the direction of Ronald Inglehart [email ,website].

The World Values Survey data have become increasingly well-known in recent years, and have been utilized in hundreds of publications in more than a dozen languages; an incomplete list appears in the publications section. These data have also been used extensively in graduate seminars and for instructional purposes more broadly. For example, Russell Dalton's second edition of Citizen Politics includes a subset of these data in a computer-based instructional unit. The Micro Case corporation has also made extensive use of the WVS data in four textbooks with computer-based instructional units: American Government (5th ed.); in Discovering Sociology, published in 1997; in Cultural Anthropology, published in 1998; and in Comparative Politics: An Introduction Using Explorit, published in 1999. According to MicroCase, over 50,000 students per year use WVS data in connection with these textbooks.

A 3-wave dataset containing the data from the 1981, 1990-91 and 1995-98 waves of the combined European Values Surveys and World Values surveys can be obtained from the ICPSR survey data archive at the University of Michigan and from other major archives. For information about the ICPSR dataset, contact Janet Vavra (e-mail: jan@icpsr.umich.edu)

The Origins of the World Values Surveys

The World Values Surveys grew out of a study launched by the European Values Survey group (EVS) under the leadership of Jan Kerkhofs and Ruud de Moor, with an advisory committee consisting of Gordon Heald, Juan Linz, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, Jacques Rabier and Helene Riffault. In 1981, the EVS carried out surveys in ten West European societies; it evoked such widespread interest that it was replicated in 14 additional countries.

Findings from these surveys suggested that predictable cultural changes were taking place. To monitor these changes, a new wave of surveys was launched, this time designed to be carried out globally. The second wave of surveys was designed and coordinated by the following steering committee: Ruud de Moor, chair; Jan Kerkhofs, co-chair; Karel Dobbelaere, Loek Halman, Stephen Harding, Felix Heunks, Ronald Inglehart, Renate Koecher, Jacques Rabier and Noel Timms. Inglehart organized the surveys in non-European countries and in several East European countries.

WVS Participants from nearly 40 societies on all six inhabited continents met in Spain in September 1993 to evaluate results of the first two waves of surveys. Coherent patterns of change were observed from 1981 to 1990, with a wide range of key values. To monitor these changes and probe more deeply into their causes and consequences, the group agreed to carry out additional waves of research in 1995 and 2000; and began designing the 1995 wave. This wave was designed to give special attention to obtaining better coverage of non-Western societies and analyzing the development of a democratic political culture in the emerging Third Wave democracies. The EVS group did not participate in this wave.

The design and execution of the 1995-1998 World Values Surveys were coordinated by the following Steering committee:

Ronald Inglehart, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A. [email,website]

Miguel Basanez, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

Elena Bashkirova, Russian Public Opinion and Market Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

Alan Black, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia

Juan Diez-Nicolas, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain

Yilmaz Esmer, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Free University of Berlin and Berlin Science Center

Thorleif Petterson, Uppsala University, Sweden

Renata Siemienska, University of Warsaw, Poland

Kareem Tejumola, RmsMedia, Lagos, Nigeria

Seiko Yamazaki, Dentsu Institute for Human Studies, Tokyo, Japan

A combined three-wave dataset is available from the ICPSR archive at the University of Michigan. It follows the format of the 1995-1998 WVS, and contains all variables from the two earlier waves that were included in the 1995-1998 survey. For variables from earlier surveys that were not included in the 1995-1998 survey, see the ICPSR datasets for the 1981-84 and 1990-1993 surveys respectively.

A fourth wave of surveys is being carried out jointly by the EVS and WVS groups, in 1999-2001.

The usefulness of these surveys has grown as they have come to provide more complete coverage of the world's societies, and as the time series that they cover has grown longer. The 1981-83 survey covered 22 independent countries plus surveys in Northern Ireland and Tambov oblast of the Russian republic; the 1990-93 survey expanded to cover 42 independent countries plus surveys in Northern Ireland, and Greater Moscow; the 1995-97 survey covered 54 independent countries, plus surveys in Puerto Rico, Tambov oblast, Montenegro, the Andalusian, Basque, Galician and Valencian regions of Spain and a pilot survey in Ghana. In all, 66 independent countries have been surveyed in at least one wave of this investigation. These countries include almost 80 percent of the world's population. The World Values surveys provide a broader range of variation than has ever before been available for analyzing the impact of the values and beliefs of mass publics on political and social life. This unique data base makes it possible to examine cross-level linkages, such as that between public values and economic growth; or between environmental pollution and mass attitudes toward environmental protection; or that between political culture and democratic institutions.