European Values Study
European Values Study (EVS) is a large-scale survey on fundamental human values. It provides insights into ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of citizens across Europe. It is a unique research project on how Europeans think about life, family, work, religion, politics, and society.
European Values Study was first conducted in 1981 and has since taken place every nine years in a varying number of countries. In the fourth wave in 2008, the survey was carried out in 47 European countries/regions, and around 70,000 people in Europe were interviewed.
Data from the European Values Study are published with open access and can be reached via the EVS website. Many studies based on EVS data have been published in scientific journals, and in-depth analyses of the results from 1981, 1990, 1999, and 2008 in Western and Central Europe indicate that a profound transformation of modern culture is underway, although it does not occur at the same pace in all countries. Cultural and social changes appear to depend on the degree of socio-economic development and historical factors specific to each country. The latest EVS wave from 2017 provides further insights into this issue and also enables analyses of the impact of the economic crisis on Europeans’ values. In 2017, EVS collaborated with WVS (World Values Survey) when the study was conducted in Europe.
EVS 2026
The next wave of EVS will be conducted in 2026, and preparations for the survey are currently underway. You can read more about the survey on the EVS website (europeanvaluesstudy.eu).
Access to data
The European Values Study covers the period 1981–2020 with a core questionnaire administered to respondents from representative samples of the adult population in various European countries over time. Each national survey follows guidelines that ensure high quality and consistency.
EVS data and documentation are published with open access and stored at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne, Germany, and can be accessed via the EVS website (europeanvaluesstudy.eu).
The European Values Study is a unique source of trend data for the past four decades, enabling researchers to explore the most pressing research questions in areas such as religiosity and morality, politics, family and gender roles, national and European identity, environment, solidarity, and social cohesion. Many of the questions have been asked in multiple waves of the survey, allowing studies of changes over time. In addition, a large number of questions are included in the World Values Survey (WVS) from 1981 to 2021, making global analyses possible.
The figure illustrates the datasets currently available for EVS as well as additional datasets resulting from collaboration with WVS.
National coordinator EVS Sweden
E-mail: stefan.dahlberg@miun.se
