Project: World Values Survey (WVS)

World Values Survey (WVS)

The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. In order to monitor changes in values and understand their implications, the WVS has carried out successive waves of surveys since 1981 in over 120 countries, containing almost 90 percent of the world’s population.

This project provides an unparalleled data base for the analysis of the role of human beliefs and values in social, economic and political change. Extensive geographical and thematic scope, free availability of survey data and project findings for broad public turned the WVS into one of the most authoritative and widely-used cross-national surveys in the social sciences.

At the moment, WVS is the largest non-commercial cross-national empirical time-series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed. Results from more than 4000 Publications demonstrate that the values of ordinary people have an important impact on a wide range of important social phenomena, ranging from human fertility rates to gender equality, and the extent to which democratic institutions emerge and flourish.

The most recent 8th Wave of the World Values Survey started in January 2024. WVS-8 is planned for 2024-2026. The 8th wave of the study in the United States is headed by Jon Miller, PI; Albana Shehaj; and Ragnhild Nordås.

Jon Miller is a research scientist emeritus with the Center for Political Studies. He has conducted longitudinal studies measuring the public understanding of science and technology in the United States, and has examined the factors associated with the development of attitudes toward science and science policy.

Albana Shehaj is a political scientist at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University specializing in international political economy, artificial intelligence, and democratic developments.

Ragnhild Nordås is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, a faculty affiliate of the Program in International and Comparative Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research. She is also a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).