Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The aim of the Centre for Population Change (CPC) General Household Survey (GHS) Database project was twofold. The first objective was to create a new data resource, assembling in a single data file, in harmonised form, a time series of repeated cross-sectional GHS survey data on demographic histories relating to fertility, marriage and cohabitation. The second objective was to use this new data resource to analyse the changing dynamics of childbearing and partnership over recent decades, and especially to examine the determinants of the changing timetable of fertility and partnership. The data are a subset, in harmonised form, of all GHS rounds 1979-2009, with those from 1998-2009 being Special Licence editions plus the previous 1972-2004 Time Series GHS Dataset. From 2008, the GHS was known as the General Lifestyle Survey until it closed in 2012. See the UK Data Service General Lifestyle Survey series webpage for the original catalogue records. Further information about construction of the database can be found in the documentation. Information about the overall project can be found on the ESRC Centre for Population Change: Understanding Population Change in the 21st Century award page. The Secure Access version replaces the previous Special Licence version that was held under SN 7666, which is no longer available. Prospective users of the Secure Access data will need to fulfil additional requirements, including completion of face-to-face training and agreement to Secure Access' User Agreement and Breaches Penalties Policy, in order to obtain permission to use that version (see 'Access' section below). Full citation: The Principal Investigators' preferred full citation for the database is as follows: Beaujouan, E., Ni Bhrolcháin, M., Berrington, A., Falkingham, J. Centre for Population Change General Household Survey Database, 1979-2009: Secure Access [computer file]. Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division, [original data producer(s)]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], March 2015. SN: 8099, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8099-1
Main Topics:
Fertility, marriage, cohabitation, household composition, education, age, separation, divorce, marital dissolution, partnership dissolution, contraception, sterilisation.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
The original GHS used face-to-face interview and self-completion to gather information.
