TRACKING THE PULSE OF THE PEOPLE: THE WORLD VALUES SURVEY IN SOUTH AFRICA
At no point in recent history have citizens from across the world been faced with so many severe challenges. The number of democracies worldwide has started to decline, and poor governance, corruption, and a political elite that are seemingly out of touch with the citizens they are supposed to serve have resulted in widespread distrust of governments and political leaders. Rising populist and nationalist sentiments have divided nations, while protests in support of minorities (Black Lives Matter) and women(#MeToo) have proliferated across the world. The global coronavirus pandemic has strained even the most
sophisticated national healthcare systems, while many national economies have been plunged into turmoil, resulting in rising unemployment, inequality, and insecurity.
Mapping and understanding the basic values and beliefs of people has never been as important. By investigating the political, economic, religious and social orientations of societies of diverse cultural traditions, researchers and policymakers are uniquely positioned to analyse social change with increasing effectiveness. This project will generate new survey data for South Africa that will be incorporated into the World Values Survey global dataset. The data will be available for widespread use by academics and practitioners and serve as the foundation for research collaboration between both established and emerging academics throughout the world.
sophisticated national healthcare systems, while many national economies have been plunged into turmoil, resulting in rising unemployment, inequality, and insecurity.
Mapping and understanding the basic values and beliefs of people has never been as important. By investigating the political, economic, religious and social orientations of societies of diverse cultural traditions, researchers and policymakers are uniquely positioned to analyse social change with increasing effectiveness. This project will generate new survey data for South Africa that will be incorporated into the World Values Survey global dataset. The data will be available for widespread use by academics and practitioners and serve as the foundation for research collaboration between both established and emerging academics throughout the world.
Final report
This infrastructure project "TA PULSEN PÅ FOLKET: WORLD VALUES SURVEY I SYDAFRIKA" funded the infrastructure to develop and conduct the eighth wave of the World Values Survey in South Africa. This included funding to (1) field the survey to a representative sample of the adult (18+) South African population through face-to-face interviews in seven languages, (2) create a dataset based on the responses by the 4000 respondents that were sampled, (3) transfer the data to the World Values Survey organization to be combined and stored with data from other countries included in the eighth wave and earlier waves of the survey, and (4) disseminate information about the survey data and descriptive results based on the survey data to relevant academics, policymakers and civil society actors in South Africa through a launch event held in South Africa.
The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research programme devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious, and cultural values of people in the world. This research programme forms part of a long-term investigation of the value orientations of societies of diverse cultural traditions by means of a representative comparative social survey that is conducted globally every 5 years. To date, seven successive waves have been completed across 120 societies on all six continents, representing 94.5% of the world’s population. The eighth wave is underway in other countries in addition to South Africa and set to be completed by the end of 2028.
The WVS is a leading source of comparative quantitative information on social tolerance to foreigners, religious and ethnic minorities, attitudes towards women and family roles, the role of religion and religiosity, the impact of globalization, attitudes toward the environment, democratic governance, work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, and subjective well-being. This information is provided in a global comparative context and with a time series that now covers 40 years, making it unique in the possibility to analyze social change.
The fieldwork was conducted by IPSOS from October to December 2024 and entailed the face-to-face computer-aided personal interviews (CAPI) of 4000 South Africans in 7 languages. A stratified multistage random sample design was employed, with all South Africans 18 years and older having an equal chance of being selected. The sample was then stratified into homogenous sub-groups defined by province, gender, age, population group, and community size. Since the sample is weighted to the full population and within a statistical margin of error of less than 2% at 95% confidence level, it is representative of the adult population of South Africa.
In order to represent the adult population of South Africa within a statistical margin of error of less than 2%, particular attention was given to the cultural and demographic diversity that characterizes South Africa and required a large sample size (roughly triple the size of other participating WVS countries).
Once the fieldwork was concluded, a dataset of anonymized responses was generated by IPSOS and the Stellenbosch project PI and transferred to the World Values Survey organization.
The root questionnaire for the 8th wave of the World Values Survey includes over 200 questions for generating data for survey research covering over 200 variables or indicators. The topics covered by the survey questions are:
Important aspects of life
Happiness and well-being
Social capital and social networks
Institutional trust
Post-materialist values
Security
Science, technology, and climate change
Economic values, migration, and identity
Political interest and affiliation
Political participation
Support for political regimes
Corruption
Religion and religiosity
Social values and norms
Gender norms and family values
Demography
With this coverage of topics vital to our understanding of human and social development, the WVS has made possible the testing and development of broad theories of the connections between economic, human, and political development. This has not only contributed to important theoretical progress in our understanding of the worldwide processes of modernization, and post-modernization, but also links them to the processes of sustainability, democratization, and, more recently, democratic regression. Such findings are not only important for academic scholars, but also for practitioners who work in national development agencies and democratic assistance programs in understanding the relative value of projects aimed at material, cognitive, or political development.
The continued inclusion of South Africa in the WVS is vital because it provides valuable scientific information for policymakers seeking to sustain and strengthen civil society and (relatively young) democratic institutions. South Africa’s transition from an authoritarian apartheid regime to a democracy in 1994 was widely lauded as a miracle by the international community. Since then, universal suffrage, political rights and freedoms, and civil liberties have been extended to all citizens and enshrined in one of the most liberal constitutions in the world. It is thus unsurprising that South Africa continues to score positively, and high in the African context, on a host of liberal democratic indicators from macro-level data such as Freedom House, V-Dem, and the Democracy Index. While these macro-level investigations are useful in assessing the status and strength of democracies, they are by no means the only way to study democracy. By tapping into individual, or micro-level data such as the WVS, we are able to measure citizens’ attitudes toward political, economic, social, religious, and cultural values and systems as well as their behaviour with increasing effectiveness.
By continuing to track and understand key trends of post-apartheid South Africa, we are able to provide insight into many pressing issues. Are values, overall, changing in ways that will support and contribute to economic growth, reduce inequality, and sustain democracy? If so, or if not, is this due to individual-level change? Or is it due to generational differences? And what are the driving factors? How does the role of education, compare to experiences of poverty, identity, or cultural beliefs? In addition, understanding South Africa is also important to draw broader comparative conclusions. Indeed, South Africa is perhaps one of the most important settings for this study, since it provides and ongoing laboratory to examine the consequences of highly uneven levels of education and material development, racial and ethnic pluralism, and rapid generational change for the development of a new democracy within one country.
A copy of the presentation of the survey and the descriptive results based on responses from the sampled South African population developed for the WVS-SA Launch Event is available upon request by contacting Amy Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg (amy.alexander@gu.se).
The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research programme devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious, and cultural values of people in the world. This research programme forms part of a long-term investigation of the value orientations of societies of diverse cultural traditions by means of a representative comparative social survey that is conducted globally every 5 years. To date, seven successive waves have been completed across 120 societies on all six continents, representing 94.5% of the world’s population. The eighth wave is underway in other countries in addition to South Africa and set to be completed by the end of 2028.
The WVS is a leading source of comparative quantitative information on social tolerance to foreigners, religious and ethnic minorities, attitudes towards women and family roles, the role of religion and religiosity, the impact of globalization, attitudes toward the environment, democratic governance, work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, and subjective well-being. This information is provided in a global comparative context and with a time series that now covers 40 years, making it unique in the possibility to analyze social change.
The fieldwork was conducted by IPSOS from October to December 2024 and entailed the face-to-face computer-aided personal interviews (CAPI) of 4000 South Africans in 7 languages. A stratified multistage random sample design was employed, with all South Africans 18 years and older having an equal chance of being selected. The sample was then stratified into homogenous sub-groups defined by province, gender, age, population group, and community size. Since the sample is weighted to the full population and within a statistical margin of error of less than 2% at 95% confidence level, it is representative of the adult population of South Africa.
In order to represent the adult population of South Africa within a statistical margin of error of less than 2%, particular attention was given to the cultural and demographic diversity that characterizes South Africa and required a large sample size (roughly triple the size of other participating WVS countries).
Once the fieldwork was concluded, a dataset of anonymized responses was generated by IPSOS and the Stellenbosch project PI and transferred to the World Values Survey organization.
The root questionnaire for the 8th wave of the World Values Survey includes over 200 questions for generating data for survey research covering over 200 variables or indicators. The topics covered by the survey questions are:
Important aspects of life
Happiness and well-being
Social capital and social networks
Institutional trust
Post-materialist values
Security
Science, technology, and climate change
Economic values, migration, and identity
Political interest and affiliation
Political participation
Support for political regimes
Corruption
Religion and religiosity
Social values and norms
Gender norms and family values
Demography
With this coverage of topics vital to our understanding of human and social development, the WVS has made possible the testing and development of broad theories of the connections between economic, human, and political development. This has not only contributed to important theoretical progress in our understanding of the worldwide processes of modernization, and post-modernization, but also links them to the processes of sustainability, democratization, and, more recently, democratic regression. Such findings are not only important for academic scholars, but also for practitioners who work in national development agencies and democratic assistance programs in understanding the relative value of projects aimed at material, cognitive, or political development.
The continued inclusion of South Africa in the WVS is vital because it provides valuable scientific information for policymakers seeking to sustain and strengthen civil society and (relatively young) democratic institutions. South Africa’s transition from an authoritarian apartheid regime to a democracy in 1994 was widely lauded as a miracle by the international community. Since then, universal suffrage, political rights and freedoms, and civil liberties have been extended to all citizens and enshrined in one of the most liberal constitutions in the world. It is thus unsurprising that South Africa continues to score positively, and high in the African context, on a host of liberal democratic indicators from macro-level data such as Freedom House, V-Dem, and the Democracy Index. While these macro-level investigations are useful in assessing the status and strength of democracies, they are by no means the only way to study democracy. By tapping into individual, or micro-level data such as the WVS, we are able to measure citizens’ attitudes toward political, economic, social, religious, and cultural values and systems as well as their behaviour with increasing effectiveness.
By continuing to track and understand key trends of post-apartheid South Africa, we are able to provide insight into many pressing issues. Are values, overall, changing in ways that will support and contribute to economic growth, reduce inequality, and sustain democracy? If so, or if not, is this due to individual-level change? Or is it due to generational differences? And what are the driving factors? How does the role of education, compare to experiences of poverty, identity, or cultural beliefs? In addition, understanding South Africa is also important to draw broader comparative conclusions. Indeed, South Africa is perhaps one of the most important settings for this study, since it provides and ongoing laboratory to examine the consequences of highly uneven levels of education and material development, racial and ethnic pluralism, and rapid generational change for the development of a new democracy within one country.
A copy of the presentation of the survey and the descriptive results based on responses from the sampled South African population developed for the WVS-SA Launch Event is available upon request by contacting Amy Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg (amy.alexander@gu.se).