About us

Our mission is to advance the understanding of social phenomena in America and the world through rigorous cross-national survey research and innovative ideas. We strive to foster interdisciplinary knowledge networks, global research collaboration, and insights into complex social challenges.

An academic research project, the US-World Values Survey documents human values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior in America compared with societies across the world. 

The U.S. survey was first established in 1981 by Professor Ronald Inglehart as a part of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study. To monitor value change, the survey has been conducted roughly every five years. Successive waves of the US survey have been generously funded by the US National Science Foundation.

The WVS quickly became one of the most widely-used and authoritative cross-national and time-series surveys covering almost 120 societies (including nearly 95% of the world’s population).

Our activities are coordinated by the World Values Survey Association, a non-profit research organization with its legal seat in Sweden.

The WVSA President and Secretariat is located in Vienna, Austria.

The data archive containing the US and crossnational timeseries datasets is based at the JD Systems Institute in Madrid, Spain. 

The WVSA is governed by the Executive Committee, the Scientific Advisory Committee, and the General Assembly, under the terms of the Constitution.