If left is "1-5" and right is "6-10", a median of 5.6 it is almost geometrical center (the center will be 5.5 » 0.1 points of difference could be only the statistically error, or the "Vietnam factor")

My first thought was the alignment might reflect party political fortunes, but looking at the results from different study years suggests that it is only a minor factor.

Incidentally I noticed that in most countries men and women have almost identical averages, which surprised me somewhat.

What accounts for the multiple entries for some of the countries? When they're next to each other (like Vietnam) it's easy to spot, but there are others (at least 3 entries for Germany) that are more spread out...

multiple surveys across waves of WVS. i decided to put in replicates since they should "average" out.

Assuming the Vietnam data are nonsense & discarding them:

The median is 5.6 & the mean is 5.61. But only 20 samples have a score of 5 or below, while 36 have a score of 6 or above. 3 are 4.5 or below, while 17 are 6.5 or above (although this includes Bangladesh, Columbia, Puerto Rico & Indonesia twice).

I don't know about the world trend, but the data for America seem to suggest an aging population. People get more conservative as they age, are these results controlled for that?

There's at least one weirdness: Turk appears twice with different scores. Typo?

It seems fairly clear to me that these results are indicating which direction the average person in that country (or the average survey respondent in it) would like their country to go, from where it is at present. With of course "left" and "right" having somewhat or perhaps very different meanings in different countries. Hence those in Vietnam would like less Marxism and more capitalist freedom. Those in Egypt would like more political liberalization.

I doubt if this at all reflects how those in the respective countries would come out on standard objective questions. I.e. how absolutely towards the right or the left on an international scale of values they'd be. E.g. I don't think it at all accurately predicts whether the average person in these countries would be liberal or conservative on whether extra marital sex is alright, or what degree of governmental redistribution of income or control of the economy is desirable.