World Values Survey

OVERVIEW

The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research initiative that explores people’s values, beliefs, and cultural attitudes, examining how they evolve and influence social and political development. Established in 1981, the survey has conducted seven waves, covering nearly 100 countries and representing over 90% of the world's population. It assesses diverse topics such as democracy, social tolerance, gender equality, religiosity, and environmental concerns. The WVS employs standardized questionnaires across countries, gathering data through nationally representative samples via face-to-face or telephone interviews. However, the questionnaire evolves between waves to reflect emerging social, political, and cultural issues, meaning that some questions may change or be modified over time. The WVS questionnaires, along with datasets and documentation, are publicly available on the official World Values Survey website, allowing you to access and analyze the data. 

*The description above is a paraphrased version of the description on WVS website.

Available Data File Formats

EXCEL, & PDF

Accessibility

This is an open data source for public use

How to retrieve data by example;

Scenario

Assume you want to explore public opinion on the impact of immigrants on the development of the country in Canada, France, and Germany during the 2017-2022 period (Wave 7).

Step-by-step

1. Visit WVS via: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp 

2. Move the mouse pointer to the left side, and click on “Data and Documentation” in red. From the dropdown list, click on “Online Analysis” in yellow. 

3. After selecting “Online Analysis”, a new window would appear as seen below. Click on 2017-2022 wave (wave 7) in red for the latest data.

4.  After selecting 2017-2022 wave, the country dropdown menu would appear for you to select countries such as Canada, France, and Germany. Afterwards, click on “Next” in red.

5.  Afterwards, the “survey question” interface would appear. A variable can be obtained by either entering the variable code “Q121” in the variable box in green or type out the variable name “impact of immigrants on the development of the country” in the title box in red. Finally, click on “show” to display the content of the variable.

6.  After clicking on “show”, this is how the data of the variable “Impact of immigrants on the development of the country” in Canada, France, and Germany would be displayed in a table. 

7.  To display the data in a chart, move the mouse pointer to the top right corner and click on the bar icon in yellow.

8.  This is how the data would be displayed in a bar chart. If you prefer any other type of chart, use the options in red. To return to the data displayed in a table, click on the button in green. To download the data in either pdf or Excel, click on the buttons in blue respectively.

9. The dowloaded data in pdf and excel would appear respectively as seen below.

Be sure to consult with the source website on how to correctly cite your data. For this scenario, the citation in APA would look something like this;

World Values Surveys (2022). Q121.- Impact of Immigrants on the Development of the Country. https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp