It is a biennial international survey carried out in over 30 countries with the aim to measure and analyze the attitudes and values ​​in the European countries and neighboring ones. The first five surveys were conducted in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 e 2012. The project is funded by the European Commission, the European Science Foundation and by academic funds in each participating country, and it is coordinated by the Central Co-ordinating Team which is based at the Centre for Comparative Social Surveys of City University in London. The survey questionnaire consists of two modules: the central one, which remains fixed over the years and makes possible a comparison over time; the other one, variable and in rotation, explores a specific thematic area. The central module covers a broad set of social variables, including media use, trust, participation and interest in politics, the political orientation, the social, political and moral values, social exclusion, ethnicity and religious identity, health and safety. The variable module involved:

• in 2002, immigration, asylum requests, citizenship;
• in 2004 attitudes towards medicine and public health, economic morality and family-work engagement;
• In 2006, social and personal well-being, and the "time of life";
• in 2008 attitudes towards the welfare state, discrimination against the elderly;
• in 2010 work, family and well-being, trust in the judicial system
• in 2012 personal and social wellbeing, Europeans' Understandings and Evaluations of Democracy

33 nations participated in the project: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

 For more information please visit the European Social Survey website.