DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-6931-10
title: Understanding Society: Waves 1-9, 2009-2018 and Harmonised BHPS: Waves 1-18, 1991-2009: Special Licence Access
title: Understanding Society, 2008- : Special Licence Access
title: United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study

description: Understanding Society (the 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. &lt;p&gt;This release combines nine 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 primarily uses computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), but includes a telephone mop up and from wave 7 of Understanding Society web interviews. 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 (see SN 7251). Further information may be found on the &lt;a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Understanding Society&lt;/a&gt; main stage webpage and links to publications based on the study can be found on the Understanding Society &lt;a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/publications" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Latest Research&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;User Guide&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;The User Guide document included in the download package is a periodic 'snapshot' version of the guide available on the Understanding Society website. Users should ensure they also consult the online Understanding Society &lt;a title="Main Survey User Guide" href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/user-guides/main-survey-user-guide/"&gt;Main Survey User Guide&lt;/a&gt; for the latest information. The online guide includes videos and webinars, and links to a printable PDF version.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Co-funders&lt;br&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;End User Licence, Special Licence and Secure Access versions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;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 month and year of birth variables instead of just age, 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 for more detail on the 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 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. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;br&gt; 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 is 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. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; A useful overview of the governance routes for applying for genetic and bio-medical sample data, which are not available through the UK Data Service, can be found at Governance of data and sample access on the &lt;a href="https://www.metadac.ac.uk/data-access-through-metadac&gt;&lt;/a&gt; title="&gt;METADAC&lt;/a&gt; (Managing Ethico-social, Technical and Administrative issues in Data Access) website.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suitable data analysis software&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; 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.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; For the 10th edition (November 2019), Wave 9 data have been added and changes made to Waves 1-8. Harmonised BHPS files have not been changed for this release. Interviewer Characteristics data is no longer included in this dataset but is available as a separate SL. Other changes include the addition of distance moved between Waves; the addition of Council Tax bands as well as additional weights and probability variables. These and other changes are described in the revisions document.&lt;/p&gt;