History of the European Values Study

The European Values Study (http://staff.um.edu.mt/aabe2/EVS.htm) is a large-scale, cross-national, and longitudinal survey research program on basic human values initiated by the European Value Systems Study Group (EVSSG) in the late 1970s. In 1981 researchers conducted surveys in ten West European states. The project aroused interest in North and South America, the Middle and Far East, Australia, and South Africa where affiliated groups were set up to administer the same questionnaires. A second wave of surveys was launched in 1990 in all European countries, including Switzerland, Austria, countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the U.S. and Canada. A third European Values Study (1999/2000), coordinated from Tilburg University, the Netherlands, surveyed the following 36 countries: Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and the U.S., representative of about 900 million people. A fourth survey is projected for 2008.

Source: "European Values Study, General Information," www.europeanvalues.nl/info.htm; and Jan Kerkhofs, "Values in Russia: An Introduction" in Russia and Europe, A Changing International Environment, ed. Katlijn Malfiet and Lien Verpoest (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2001): 49-70.

"History of the European Values Study," East-West Church & Ministry Report 12 (Spring 2004), 7.

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© 2004 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664