CLOSER Discovery

This is the first wave of data collection for Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) studies 21st century UK life and how it is changing. It captures important information every year about the social and economic circumstances, attitudes, behaviours and health of people living in thousands of UK households.

Information from the longitudinal survey is primarily used by academics, researchers and policy makers in their work, but the findings are of interest to a much wider group of people including those working in the third sector, health practitioners, business, the media and the general public.

Interviews began in 2009 with eligible members of nearly 32,000 selected households invited to take part. Adults are interviewed and 10-15 year-olds fill in a paper self-completion questionnaire. Data collection is annual, but each wave takes place over a two year period.

UKHLS also has an ethnicity strand, with boost samples to ensure the study had at least 1,000 adults from the five main ethnicity groups in the UK. There are also extra questions asked each year of particular relevance to ethnic groups.

Study website: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/