The International Social Survey Program (ISSP) is a project involved in the construction of internationally comparable attitude surveys. The database is unique: (1) surveys covering different attitude topics have been fielded annually since 1985; (2) forty countries are members of the ISSP; (3) data is freely available to the research community. Two decades ago the lack of good comparable attitude data was evident. Therefore, a joint project between four countries took shape in the early eighties. At present, the ISSP involves forty countries on six continents. All major Western countries are represented. Some countries from Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America are also members. The range of countries participating in the ISSP facilitates comparisons along several different dimensions: between Sweden and other EU countries, between Western Europe and the New World (the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), between West and East Europe or between industrialized and developing countries. It is thus possible to compare countries that have similar societal structures and history with countries that are significantly different from each other. Since 1985 the ISSP has covered the following topics: the role of government, social inequality, work, family and gender, religion, environment and national identity.