Project Title: World Values Survey
Contact

Prof Ronald Inglehart
Ctr for Political Studies
4255 ISR, #1248
Tel:   734 936-1767
Fax:  734-764-3341
Email:  rfi@umich.edu>

Website http://www.wvs.isr.umich.edu
Description: 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 1999-2000. 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 World values survey was carried out in China in 1990 and 1995, in Taiwan in 1995, and will be carried out in both countires in 2000/2001.  
period:
Participants: Ronald Inglehart, Center for Political Studies
Dr. Liu Qiming Research Director Gallup-China
(please refer to website for complete list of researchers involved)
Sponsors: Institute for Social Research
Partnerships: World Values Survey Group, European Values Survey Group