International Social Survey Programme

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuing annual programme of cross-national collaboration on surveys covering topics important for social science research. Since 1983 it has brought together pre-existing social science projects and co-ordinated research goals, thereby adding a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective to the individual national studies.

Every survey includes questions about general attitudes toward various social issues such as the legal system, gender, and the economy. Special topics have included the environment, the role of government, social inequality, social support, family and gender issues, work orientation, the impact of religious background, behaviour, and beliefs on social and political preferences, and national identity. Participating countries vary for each topical module. The merging of the data into a cross-national dataset is performed by the Central Archive for Empirical Social Research - ZA - in Cologne, where the datasets are also stored.

ACCESS

UK residents registered with ESDS (see Registration help) and requiring data for not-for-profit purposes can order via International Social Survey Programme datasets. Non-UK users should access the data through their own national archive, direct from ZA or via ZACAT (see below).

Some of the ISSP data are available to analyse and download online at ZA Online Study Catalogue (ZACAT). Data analysis and downloading require online registration with ZACAT and there is no restriction upon who can register.

Data supply: A ZA CD-ROM collection is available for the years 1985 to 1998, exclusive of 1997. Datasets for the years 1997, 1999 and 2000 are also available on dedicated CD-ROMs and include a data exploration tool. Please note that we obtain these CD-ROMs via ZA.

Alternatively, data for individual years can be ordered on CD or via guest ftp/web download. The years available are from 1985 to 2000 inclusive. Please note that the 1997, 1999 and 2000 data that are not part of the CD-ROM product are not fully comprehensive.

Data format: The datasets are provided in SPSS format. A range of formats are available via ZACAT.

User Guides: The documentation is provided for each set of data in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Questionnaires and codebooks are freely downloadable from ZA via the List of Questionnaires / Countries web page.

Cost: If data are requested on portable media e.g. CD, handling and postage and packaging fees will apply. See Charges.