European Values Study

Where is Europe heading? This is one of the main questions of the European Values Study (EVS) - the most comprehensive research project on human values in Europe.The EVS is a large-scale, cross-national and longitudinal survey research program carried out under the responsibility of the European Values Study Foundation.

A broad range of topics is covered: The first and second wave include the main domains of life: work and leisure time, family and sexuality, religion, politics and ethics. New issues in the third wave are solidarity, social capital, democracy, and work ethics. The fourth wave has a persistent focus on a broad range of values and highly comparable questions across waves.

Comparisons of questions fielded in the EVS waves are facilitated through the online variable overview. Trend variables of all EVS waves 1981-2008 as well as original question texts within and across the waves 1999/2000 and 2008 can be compared easily.

EVS data and related documentation are stored at the GESIS Data Archive department and are accessible free of charge. 

• ZACAT - GESIS Online Study Catalogue provides data of all EVS waves for retrieval purposes, data exploration and free download. It supports full access to datasets and documentation and assists users in identifying trend variables of all four waves. Furthermore, ZACAT enables comparisons of original questions in survey languages of the third and fourth wave.
• GESIS Data Catalogue provides an overview on version history and errata. It contains study descriptions for all EVS datasets with information about updates, errors, and error corrections.

General study information is provided on t he EVS website. It covers information on the origin of the project, and the questionnaires in different language versions. Additionally, method reports and original language variable reports of integrated and/or national datasets are offered for the third and fourth EVS wave.

• EVS Repository contains publications based on the data of the EVS. These publications are mostly
  enhanced with direct links to datasets, variables, and syntax codes of concepts used.
• A special Web page Atlas of European Values has been established in cooperation with Fontys University of Applied Sciences Netherlands. By means of maps, teachers and pupils can make assignments and gain a better understanding of European values.