The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since its establishment in 2001. Every two years, face-to-face interviews are conducted with newly selected, cross-sectional samples.

The survey measures the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty nations. The main aims of the ESS are: to chart stability and change in social structure, conditions and attitudes in Europe and to interpret how Europe’s social, political and moral fabric is changing; to achieve and spread higher standards of rigour in cross-national research in the social sciences, including for example, questionnaire design and pre-testing, sampling, data collection, reduction of bias and the reliability of questions; to introduce soundly-based indicators of national progress, based on citizens’ perceptions and judgements of key aspects of their societies; to undertake and facilitate the training of European social researchers in comparative quantitative measurement and analysis; to improve the visibility and outreach of data on social change among academics, policy makers and the wider public.