EVS 2008 (ZA4800)

The fourth wave has a persistent focus on a broad range of values. Questions with respect to family, work, religious, and political and societal values are highly comparable across waves and regions. This longitudinal scope of the study makes it possible to explore trends in time. In total 46 countries/ regions were included. In each country, 1,500 persons were interviewed personally (face-to-face). A completely random sample was drawn. There is also an overview of participating countries in the several EVS waves provided.

Latest news on this wave

Due to data security reasons, the EVS 2008 is offered in two different versions:

EVS 2008 Integrated Dataset, ZA4800, v.5.0.0 (2022-06-08), doi:10.4232/1.13841.

For further information on data download, see Data Access.

Learn more

EVS 2008 Integrated Dataset (Restricted Use File), ZA4799, v.2.0.0 (2022-06-08), doi:10.4232/1.13840.

For further information on data download, see Data Access.

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Dataset versions of the EVS 2008 Integrated Dataset

Related to the current release of the EVS 2008, two approaches are combined: refined anonymization measures are applied to the data and appropriate ways of access to anonymized and sensitive data are implemented. As a result, the two versions of the EVS 2008 IDS are made available through different access ways:

EVS 2008 ZA4800 (SUF) 
This dataset version contains de facto anonymized data and is accessible through the GESIS data catalog. In order to prevent the identification of single respondents, specific information is aggregated into coarse categories providing users with less detailed information on respondent's residence and occupation.

EVS 2008 ZA4799 (Restricted Use File)
This data file contains complete information, i.e. also data that could not be included in the SUF because of data protection concerns. Due to the sensitive nature of the data, its usage is subject to specific contractual regulations. The contract allowing for off-site access can be downloaded here.

Documentation related to the Integrated Dataset

  • Study description: Information on origin and content of data, version history and errata, patches fixing data problems, and direct access to the data.
  • Technical Report: Description of the project and data management, comprising the main project phases and regulations from data creation to publication of the outcomes.
  • Method Report:  Summarized information on the Integrated Dataset and country-specific information on the national datasets.
  • Variable Report: Documentation of the Integrated Dataset with question texts of the English Master Questionnaire and frequency counts by country.

Documentation related to the national datasets

The EVS 2008 Integrated Dataset always includes the last updated version of all national datasets of EVS wave 2008. Additional country-specific variables comprised in the field questionnaire of some countries are not available in the Integrated Dataset. The national datasets are only provided for replication purposes and the analysis of such additional country-specific variables.

  • Study descriptions (SD): Information on origin and content of data, version history and errata, patches fixing data problems.
  • Field questionnaires (FQ) in all languages fielded, including Show Cards.
  • Variable Reports [VR (EN)]: Documentation of the national datasets with question texts of the English master questionnaire and frequency counts.
  • Bilingual variable documentation [VR (BL)] facilitates a direct comparison of English master questions and original questions of field questionnaire. Show Cards from both English master question and country’s original question are included as well.

  • EVS 1981-2008 Method Overview: Summarized information for all participating countries on origin and content of data.
Country Study-No. Field work period Sample size SD MR FQ VR VR-BL
Albania ZA4783 2008-07-10 to 2008-09-09 1534 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Albanian)
Armenia ZA4784 2008-06-16 to 2008-09-19 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Armenian)
Austria ZA4754 2008-07-21 to 2008-10-22 1510 SD MR FQ VR (EN/German)
Azerbaijan* ZA4785 2008-07-11 to 2008-08-10 1505 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Azerbaijani)
(EN/Russian)
Belarus ZA4782 2008-06-11 to 2008-07-31 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Russian)
Belgium ZA4759 2009-04-30 to 2009-08-02 1509 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Dutch)
(EN/French)
Bosnia-Herzegovina ZA4786 2008-07-12 to 2008-07-31 1512 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Bosnian)
Bulgaria ZA4774 2008-04-21 to 2008-06-15 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Bulgarian)
Croatia ZA4775 2008-04-31 to 2008-10-31 1525 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Croatian)
Cyprus ZA4787 2008-10-25 to 2008-11-28 1000 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Greek)
Northern Cyprus ZA4788 2008-10-28 to 2008-12-04 500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Turkish)
Czech Republic ZA4770 2008-05-05 to 2008-11-02 1821 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Czech)
Denmark ZA4760 2008-04-01 to 2008-09-15 1507 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Danish)
Estonia ZA4766 2008-07-01 to 2008-08-31 1518 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Estonian)
(EN/Russian)
Finland ZA4762 2009-07-09 to 2009-07-15 1134 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Finnish)
France ZA4751 2008-05-07 to 2008-09-04 3071 SD MR FQ VR (EN/French)
Georgia ZA4789 2008-08-21 to 2008-09-30 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Georgian)
(EN/Russian)
Germany ZA4753 2008-09-17 to 2009-02-10 2075 SD MR FQ VR (EN/German)
Great Britain ZA4752 2009-08-01 to 2010-03-10 1561 SD MR FQ VR (EN/GB-English)
Greece ZA4776 2008-09-12 to 2008-10-26 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Greek)
Hungary ZA4772 2008-11-26 to 2009-01-28 1513 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Hungarian)
Iceland ZA4763 2009-07-15 to 2010-03-15 808 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Icelandic)
Ireland ZA4765 2008-06-07 to 2008-08-31 1013 SD MR FQ VR (EN/IE-English)
Italy ZA4755 2009-10-02 to 2009-12-30 1519 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Italian)
Kosovo ZA4790 2008-07-15 to 2008-10-13 1601 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Albanian)
(EN/Serbian)
Latvia ZA4767 2008-06-01 to 2008-10-31 1506 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Latvian)
(EN/Russian)
Lithuania ZA4768 2008-07-21 to 2008-09-14 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Lithuanian)
Luxembourg ZA4779 2008-05-03 to 2008-12-15 1610 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Luxemb.)
(EN/German)
(EN/French)
(EN/Portuguese)
(EN/Lu-English)
Republic of Macedonia ZA4792 2008-07-03 to 2008-10-13 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Macedonian)
(EN/Albanian)
Malta ZA4778 2008-06-16 to 2008-09-23 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Maltese)
(EN/MT-English)
Republic of Moldova ZA4793 2008-07-02 to 2008-10-04 1551 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Moldovan)
(EN/Russian)
Republic of Montenegro ZA4794 2008-11-12 to 2008-12-08 1516 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Montenegrin)
Netherlands ZA4758 2008-05-21 to 2008-10-31 1554 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Dutch)
Northern Ireland ZA4764 2008-09-26 to 2008-10-23 500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/NIR-English)
Norway ZA4795 2008-04-07 to 2008-09-02 1090 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Norwegian)
Poland ZA4769 2008-06-27 to 2008-09-28 1510 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Polish) 
Portugal ZA4757 2008-05-26 to 2008-08-31 1553 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Portuguese)
Romania ZA4773 2008-04-24 to 2008-06-30 1489 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Romanian)
(EN/Hungarian)
Russian Federation ZA4777 2008-06-28 to 2008-07-26 1504 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Russian) 
Serbia ZA4796 2008-07-14 to 2008-07-31 1512 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Serbian) 
Slovak Republic ZA4771 2008-07-14 to 2008-08-29 1509 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Slovakian)
(EN/Hungarian)
Slovenia ZA4780 2008-03-27 to 2008-06-18 1366 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Slovenian) 
Spain ZA4756 2008-05-28 to 2008-07-15 1500 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Spanish)
Sweden ZA4761 2009-09-25 to 2010-01-10 1187 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Swedish)
Switzerland ZA4797 2008-05-08 to 2008-10-06 1271 SD MR FQ VR (EN/German)
(EN/French)
(EN/Italian)
Turkey ZA4791 2008-11-26 to 2009-03-01 2384 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Turkish) 
Ukraine ZA4781 2008-07-12 to 2008-10-09 1507 SD MR FQ VR (EN/Ukrainian)
(EN/Russian)

*WARNING: The Azerbaijanian survey is dropped from the current version of the EVS 2008 IDS due to concerns about the data quality. For evaluation, data and documentation of the national dataset (Azerbaijan, ZA4785) can be downloaded from the GESIS data catalogue. Users who want to analyse the data are kindly asked to carefully check socio-demographic distributions (e.g. age, education, and marital status) indicating problems regarding sample design and fieldwork, respectively.