World Values Survey Association (WVSA) is a non-commercial non-governmental international social research organization with the Legal Seat in Stockholm, Sweden. WVSA Secretariat - the Global Headquarters - is located in Vienna, Austria. WVSA Data archive 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. The mission of the WVSA is to contribute to a better understanding of global changes in values, norms and beliefs of people by the means of comparative representative national surveys worldwide – known as the World Values Survey (WVS).

The World Values Survey (WVS) explores values and beliefs, cultural stability or change over time and the impact of values on social and political development in different societies around the world. WVS was established in 1981 and during the last three decades it has become one of the most widely-used and authoritative cross-national and time-series surveys. WVS data is available free of charge.

The general purpose of the WVSA is to promote the advancement of social surveys throughout the world, by different means such as:

• promoting internationally planned research cooperation;
• deepening cooperation across societies and encouraging the establishment and development of research centers and survey centers in the social sciences in many countries of the world;
• facilitating the spread of information about developments in social surveys by organizing global and regional meetings, round-tables and networks among social scientists;
• publishing books, journals and social media and etc.

WVS organizes workshops and training in survey methodology and analysis on a regional level and supports capacity development in local, national and international agencies and bureaus.