Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The European Values Study (EVS) and World Values Survey (WVS) series were designed to enable a cross-national, cross-cultural comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. The EVS/WVS provides data from representative national surveys in 97 societies containing almost 90 per cent of the world's population. These surveys show pervasive changes in what people want out of life and what they believe. In order to monitor these changes, the EVS/WVS has executed five waves of surveys, from 1981 to 2007. Representative national samples of each society's public are interviewed, using a standardised questionnaire that covers a full range of social, economic, cultural and religious topic areas. The countries included in these surveys cover the full range from very poor countries to very rich ones, from authoritarian systems to liberal democracies and covering all major cultural zones. Further information about the each survey series can be found on the EVS and WVS web sites.
The European Values Study: Wave 4, Great Britain, 2009-2010 forms the Great Britain part of Wave 4 of the wider European Values Survey, the fieldwork for which began in some participating countries during 2008. Many of the questions posed replicate previous surveys, thus enabling analysis of change over time on the key dimensions of the EVS. With the addition of the fourth wave, the EVS is a unique source of trend data for the past three decades. The range of potential research questions is very wide, using either this dataset on its own or in conjunction with previous waves, or looking either at Britain alone or in comparison with other European countries. Further information is available from the British participation in the European Values Study ESRC Award web page. These data are also included in European Values Study: Wave 4, 2008, which is available for online analysis and download via ZACAT. Please see SN 6539 at the UK Data Archive for details.
Main Topics:
The study particularly focuses on questions around family, work, religious, political and societal values. Other topics include national identity, tolerance, social solidarity and life satisfaction. The questionnaire also contains items on issues of personal and civic ethics (from smoking indoors to suicide).
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
