World Value Survey

Summary

From the WVS website (https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp):

"The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents. Moreover the WVS is the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones."

The WVS has collected data in a series of waves that are now scheduled to occur every 5 years, and each survey has been conducted in more countries than the previous survey. Each survey ranges across multiple years because that is how long that takes to collect survey data in so many countries.

Wave 1 collected data on 11 countries from 1981-1984.

Wave 2 is from 1990-1994.

Wave 3 is from 1995-1998.

Wave 4 is from 1999-2004.

Wave 5 is from 2005-2009.

Wave 6 is from 2010-2014.

Wave 7 collected data on 80 countries from 2017-2022.

Wave 8 is planned for 2024-2026.

The IFs model currently has 113 series which use WVS data. Not all of the series use data that is included in the latest wave(s).

IFs Series Included in Wave 7

MatPMTop

- Percent high on Materialist/Postmaterialist scale (4 or 5)

- WVS Code Y002

UnitedNations

- Confidence in United Nations (1=great deal; 4=none at all)

- WVS Code E069_20

RespectAuthPercent

- Percent saying more respect for authority would be good

- WVS Code E018

GodImprtPercent

- Percent saying God is very important

- WVS Code F063

HomoJustifPercent

- Percent saying that homosexuality is never justified

- WVS Code F118

AbortJustifPercent

- Percent saying that abortion is never justified

- WVS Code F118

PMMinMatPercent

- Percent postmaterialist minus percent materialist

- WVS Code Y002

TradSRTop

- Percent in top quartile on Traditiona/SecularRational Values

- WVS Code Y010

DemocBest

- 1=Strongly agree democracy best, 4=Strongly disagree

- WVS Code E214

WVSIncomeEqual

- 10 point index of Income inequality: 1=Incomes should be made more equal , 10= We need larger income differences as incentives for individual effort

- WVS Code E035

WVSHomoJustif

- a 10 point scale index asking whether homosexuality is justifiable. 1 being never justifiable, 10 being always justifiable.

- WVS Code: F118

WVSGodImprt

- Index from 1 to 10 of how Important is God in the respondents life. 1= Not at all, 10= Very

- WVS Code: F063

WVSGodBelief

- Belief in: God? 1= Yes 2=No

- WVS Code: F050

WVSFreeChoice&Control

- 10 point index of how much freedom of choice do one has about their life. 1= none at all, 10=a great deal

- WVS Code: A173

Series not included in Wave 7

SurvSETop

- Percent in top quartile on Survival/Self-expression Values

- A043B

WVSIdealFamSize

- 10 point index asking: what do you think is the ideal size of the family - how many children, if any? 1= none , 10=10+ children

- WVS Code D017

WVSForeignAid

- How much more foreign aid do you think this country should contribute? 1= about 1.5x as much, 2= about 2x, 3= about 3x, 4= about 4x, 5=more than 4x as much, -3=not applicable

- WVS Code: E129B