Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Understanding Society, (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Kantar Public and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

This release combines eleven waves of Understanding Society data with harmonised data from all eighteen waves of the BHPS. As multi-topic studies, the purpose of Understanding Society and BHPS is to understand short- and long-term effects of social and economic change in the UK at the household and individual levels. The study has a strong emphasis on domains of family and social ties, employment, education, financial resources, and health. Understanding Society is an annual survey of each adult member of a nationally representative sample. The same individuals are re-interviewed in each wave approximately 12 months apart. When individuals move they are followed within the UK and anyone joining their households are also interviewed as long as they are living with them. The study has five sample components: the general population sample; a boost sample of ethnic minority group members; an immigrant and ethnic minority boost sample (from wave 6); participants from the BHPS; and the Innovation Panel (which is a separate standalone survey (see SN 6849). The fieldwork period is for 24 months. Data collection uses computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and web interviews (from wave 7), and includes a telephone mop up. From March 2020 (the end of wave 10 and 2nd year of wave 11), due to the coronavirus pandemic, face-to-face interviews were suspended and the survey has been conducted by web and telephone only, but otherwise has continued as before. One person completes the household questionnaire. Each person aged 16 or older participates in the individual adult interview and self-completed questionnaire. Youths aged 10 to 15 are asked to respond to a paper self-completion questionnaire. For the general and BHPS samples biomarker, genetic and epigenetic data are also available. The biomarker data, and summary genetics and epigenetic scores, are available via UKDS (see SN 7251); detailed genetics and epigenetics data are available by application (see below). In 2020 an additional frequent web survey was separately issued to sample members to capture data on the rapid changes in people’s lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see SN 8644). Further information may be found on the Understanding Society main stage webpage and links to publications based on the study can be found on the Understanding Society Latest Research webpage. Co-funders In addition to the Economic and Social Research Council, co-funders for the study included the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, the Department for Transport, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Community and Local Government, the Department of Health, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs, and the Food Standards Agency. End User Licence, Special Licence and Secure Access versions: There are two versions of the main Understanding Society data. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement, and the other is a Special Licence (SL) version. The SL version contains additional month of birth variables, more detailed country and occupation coding for a number of variables and various income variables have not been top-coded (see the documentation available with the SL version or the Understanding Society website for more detail on these and other differences). Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements. The SL data have more restrictive access conditions; prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. The SL versions of the main Understanding Society and Innovation Panel studies may be found under SNs 6931 and 7083 respectively.  Low- and Medium-level geographical identifiers are also available subject to SL access conditions; see SNs 6666, 6668-6675, 7453-4, 7629-30, 7245 and 7248-9 (mainstage study) and 6908-6916, 7339 and 7637-41 (Innovation Panel). Schools data are available subject to SL access conditions in SN 7182. Higher Education establishments for Wave 5 are available subject to SL access conditions in SN 8578. Interviewer Characteristics data, also subject to SL access conditions are available in SN 8579. In addition, a fine detail geographic dataset (SN 6676) is available under more restrictive Secure Access conditions that contains British National Grid postcode grid references (at 1m resolution) for the unit postcode of each household surveyed, derived from the ONS National Statistics Postcode Directory (NSPD). For details on how to make an application for Secure Access dataset, please see the SN 6676 catalogue record.  How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys: Information on how to access genetics and epigenetics data, directly form the study team, is available on the website: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/health-assessment/accessing-data/genetics-application. Latest edition information For the 17th edition (November 2022) Wave 12 data has been added. Other minor changes and corrections have also been made to Waves 1-11. Please refer to the revisions document for full details.Data update - May 2023Two variables have been corrected in this data update, both of which are in the file w_indresp. Firstly, w_penmtp, Final pension calculated, in waves 10 and 12, the occurrences assigned to values 1 and 2 had been transposed. Secondly, l_oprlg1, Religion: E/S/W, had a problem whereby a significant number of occurrences were wrongly assigned to the wrong value. These have now been assigned correctly. Suitable data analysis software These data are provided by the depositor in Stata format. Users are strongly advised to analyse them in Stata. Transfer to other formats may result in unforeseen issues. Stata SE or MP software is needed to analyse the larger files, which contain over 2,047 variables.

Main Topics:

The survey instrument is constructed with modules. For a fuller listing of modules and questionnaire content see the User Manual or the online documentation system. The household grid or enumeration grid has a listing of all household members with information about gender, date of birth, marital and employment status, and relationship to the household respondent. The household questionnaire has questions about housing, mortgage or rent payments, material deprivation, and consumer durables and cars. The individual adult interview is asked of every person in the household aged 16 or over. It has questions about demographics, baseline information, family background, ethnicity and language use; migration, partnership and fertility histories; health, disability and caring; current employment and earnings; employment status; parenting and childcare arrangements; family networks; benefit payments; political party identification; household finances; environmental behaviours; consents to administrative data linkage. In 2020, we added modules to all relevant waves in the field, to capture people’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of their health, social and economic situation. A proxy module is a much shortened version of the individual questionnaire that collects demographic, health and employment information, as well as a summary income measure. It is completed by one person on behalf of another. Those who completed an individual adult interview also complete a self-completion questionnaire. It includes subjective questions, particularly those which are potentially sensitive or require more privacy. For example, feelings of depression (GHQ-12) and well-being, sleep behaviour, environmental attitudes and beliefs, neighbourhood participation and belonging, life satisfaction, activities with partner and relationship quality. A youth self-completed questionnaire is completed by 10-15 year olds. It includes questions on computer and technology use, family support, sibling relationships, feelings about areas of life, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, health behaviours, smoking and drinking, and aspirations.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Telephone interview

Web-based interview

Face-to-face interview

Self-administered questionnaire