These 6 Maps Reveal The Most Important Values Of People Around The World

In its 2010-2014 wave, the World Values Survey asked residents of 52 countries how important they consider family, friends, leisure time, politics, work, and religion.

WVS is the largest "non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed." It dates back to 1981 and has included nearly 400,000 respondents from 100 countries, which house 90% of the world's population.

The question asked:"For each of the following, indicate how important it is in your life. Would you say it is?" Responses included: "Very important," "rather important," "not very important," "not at all important," "no answer," and "don't know."

The six maps below show the average calculated answer distribution around the world for each life aspect. The scale ranged from -100 to 100, with 100 meaning everyone responding "very important."

In the map below, only one country, Lebanon, rated the importance of family less than 90. Respondents there said 78, still within the green on the index.

A little more variation exists with work. The darker countries rated work more important in life.

Only one country, Peru, rated the importance of friends less than 30. There, the only yellow on the map, respondents said 13.

The United States and Australia both rated leisure time the highest, at 72, while Morroco put it at 0.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the majority of respondents wouldn't consider politics very important in life. Just 13 countries showed positive numbers for their ratings.

With -76, residents of Slovenia find politics the least important, and Egypt rated it the most at important, at 50.

Unsurprisingly, the importance of religion exhibited the most variation. Here, countries sit at all different positions on the spectrum.

China, at -69, finds religion the least important, while Egypt ranked it a full 100.