Born in Leiden studied Sociology at the Utrecht University from 1961 receiving his Master of Arts in 1968. In 1979 he received his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in 1979 with the thesis entitled "Methods and techniques for the analysis of survey data with measurement error" advised by Rob Mokken.
Saris started his academic career as in 1967 as research assistant at the University of Utrecht, Sociology Department, and was Assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam at the Department of Methods from 1968 to 1982. In 1983 he was appointed Professor Statistics and Methodology at the University of Amsterdam, the Department of Methods (nowadays the Department of Techniques for Political Science). From 1989 to 1995 he also directed the Foundation Telepanel, Amsterdam.
In 2006 he retired from the University of Amsterdam, and accepted a position at the Escuela Superior de Administraciónew york Dirección de Empresas in Barcelona, Spain as Professor in methodology.
Since 2009 he holds the same position at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Saris advised about 25 doctoral students.
Among them were Nelly Kalfs (1993), Annette Scherpenzeel (1995), Jack Menke (1996), Gilbert Cijntje (1997), Akos Munnich (1998), Emiel Kaper (1999), Jaap Kamps (2000), Ivar Vermeulen (2002), Robert Voogt (2004), William van der Veld (2006) all at the University of Amsterdam, Christiana Martini (2003) at the University of Padua, Alberto Gimeno and Antoni Dorse (2005), Laura Guillén Ramo (2007), all at Escuela Superior de Administraciónew york Dirección de Empresas , Barcelona, Daniel Oberski, Tilburg University (2011), and Mélanie Révilla and Wiebke Weber, Pompeu Fabra University (2012).
He was awarded the "2013 Outstanding Service Prize" by the European Survey Research Association., the 2009 Helen Dinerman Award from the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR), was co-laureate of the 2005 Descartes Prize awarded to the European Social Survey, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Debrecen in Hungary (2011).
Saris was a founding member of the European Social Survey (2002) and the European Survey Research Association (2005).
