Understanding Society - The UK Household Longitudinal Study

Understanding Society is the new UK Household Longitudinal Study. The study is the world's largest household panel survey, following a sample of around 40,000 households and 100,000 individuals annually from 2009.

The study both replaces and incorporates the British Household Panel Survey, retaining the latter's longevity whilst adding considerably not only to the sample size but also extending the scope of the study (new components will include an Innovation Panel, greater detail on ethnic minority groups and proposed qualitative and biomedical data collections).

A key feature of the study will be the ability to match external information at the area, institutional and individual level to the questionnaire data and ESDS Longitudinal will be able to advise users on what can be matched to the data and under what conditions.

The first data from the study are expected to be made available via the ESDS in 2010.