A 🧵 on the timely issue of diversity and social cohesion: immigration is a perennial hot topic, and the latest figures show “the number of people migrating to the UK has been greater than the number emigrating in each year since 1994”

...or let your ears do the work and listen to our new podcast episode (but admire the cat, too, obviously)

…or our newest ‘explainer’ case study

If you’re looking for some lunchtime reading, you could try our latest blog post…

It was great to contribute to this study for @usociety.bsky.social on the epigenetic correlates of major depression, and to be listed alongside such incredible co-authors! www.nature.com/articles/s44...

If you’re looking for some lunchtime reading, you could try our latest blog post…

New blog: Tak Wing Chan @ioe.bsky.social with a detailed look at immigration and social cohesion. Pundits and some research tell us that diversity undermines trust and solidarity, but can we accept findings which don’t take poverty and inequality into account?

New case study! Charity @pbe.co.uk used our data to show that the £28 billion annual bill for disability benefits creates £42bn in positive effects

PODCAST from @usociety.bsky.social about pets! Can we put a monetary value on what pets bring to our lives? Interviews with Adelina Gschwandtner (Kent) and Ashleigh Brown (RSPCA) www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/pet...

Join the Understanding Society user support team for lunch-time learning on some of the key topic areas covered by @usociety.bsky.social. The free, one-hour online courses are designed for both new and experienced users of Understanding Society. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

Our podcast is back from its summer break! Our new episode has Adelina Gschwandtner @kent.ac.uk and Ashleigh Brown from RSPCA discussing pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to work out a monetary value for the benefits we get from cats and dogs

Fascinating bit of research using our data...

Using data from the US and the UK (using Understanding Society) to look at lifetime trends in happiness. "We now see a peak of unhappiness among the young, which then declines with age."

Exploring ethnicity through national datasets - join the Data Resources Training Network for this free webinar on 19 Sept, 10-11.30. Focusing in secondary, quantitative data from the Census, UKHLS, ONS LS, Next Steps and MoJ data. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/f1f912...

“A surprisingly large share of young citizens has its political future decided already at age 17 – or in many cases even at age 11.” Interesting new paper using our data and the German Socio-Economic Panel

A quick reminder: If you haven’t already, please take a moment to respond to our consultation on revising the ethnicity and immigration questions in Understanding Society. Your input is incredibly valuable!

New blog on local food environments and children's health with @hettieburn.bsky.social and @rabe-b.bsky.social Would be delighted to hear from Local Authorities and other stakeholders interested in evidencing preventive public health policies! @iseressex.bsky.social @misoc-essex.bsky.social

Senior Research Officer Jim Vine has written for @ukdataservice.bsky.social’s Data Impact blog about our Innovation Panel, and how we gather new types of data, and develop survey methods

Young adults in coastal areas face ‘double whammy of poor mental health’ CASE STUDY from @usociety.bsky.social Research shows lower self-rated mental health and a higher likelihood of undiagnosed conditions. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/young...

New from Tarek Al Baghal and colleagues (@usociety.bsky.social) in POQ: What’s the best way to collect survey opinions *and* objective health data from respondents? Find out now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

Thanks to Chris Coates at Uni of Essex for writing this excellent blog about our work on common variants in neurodevelopment conditions www.nature.com/articles/s41..., using data from @genomicsengland.bsky.social , DDD, @usociety.bsky.social , ALSPAC and @clscohorts.bsky.social.

Data from @usociety.bsky.social helps genetic analysis of rare neurodevelopmental conditions. BLOG from @hilarycmartin.bsky.social‬ www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

Our latest podcast is out: this time, Chris talks to Cara Booker, senior research fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (where Understanding Society is based), about studying for a PhD and what to do with the doctorate once you’ve got it

Our latest blog: @hilarycmartin.bsky.social on how data from Understanding Society and others played a part in @sangerinstitute.bsky.social research into rare neurodevelopmental conditions

Interested in how successive UK State Pension Acts have influenced retirement behaviour and expectations around future retirement age? Then check out our new paper in the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... @usociety.bsky.social @uniofbath.bsky.social

Our latest blog: @hilarycmartin.bsky.social on how data from Understanding Society and others played a part in @sangerinstitute.bsky.social research into rare neurodevelopmental conditions

📣 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨 "School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support" Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1080/0140... 🧵👇

New research using Understanding Society from the @universityofessex.bsky.social Centre for Coastal Communities on the mental health of young people living in deprived coastal areas. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New policy evaluation case study: UK government’s 2012 ‘hostile environment’ immigration reforms, and media coverage of the ‘Windrush scandal’, increased Black people’s psychological distress

Our latest blog is from @eliasnaumann.bsky.social @gesis.org, via @econ-observatory.bsky.social: Work and wellbeing during COVID-19: how were European countries affected?

Our 2024 Annual Report is now available. It was another busy year for UKHLS... ✅4143 researchers registered to use a dataset ✅3669 downloads for the main survey ✅4581 publications have now used UKHLS data ✅624 people took a training course with us www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

New article in TRD by our ex PhD student Pinar Bilgin with @drmalcolmmorgan.bsky.social sky.social & @ziawadud.bsky.social : an empirical study of the impact of ridesourcing (= services like Uber) on car ownership, based on longitudinal @usociety.bsky.social ‬data doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

New comment from Dr Charis Bridger Staatz, @dylankneale.bsky.social and me on measuring and evaluating research impact from longitudinal studies in @sllshome.bsky.social journal doi.org/10.1332/1757...

Our latest policy evaluation case study is out, looking at New Labour's Pathfinder Programme: the findings show positive effects, but only in the short term

Our latest blog is one of our occasional looks at survey methods: Jamie Moore @iseressex.bsky.social on survey weights. What are they, and how do they protect against non-response biases?

Case Study from @usociety.bsky.social UK underperforms in employment for ill and disabled New case study says employment gap is the highest of 15 countries studied. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/emplo...

New on our website today: our latest ‘explainer’ – research from the Institute for Employment Studies says people with health limitations face employment challenges across Europe, but these “appear especially pronounced in the UK”

NCRM has opened applications to participate in the Research Methods Rendezvous! This free event will explore the process of turning early-stage ideas into #research projects. #RMR2025 takes place online on 10 September and 29 October 2025. Apply: www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/RMR...

We're reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration. If you'd like to give us feedback on the questions we ask and the variables you use for your research there's information on how to take part in the review on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

A new policy evaluation case study is out on our website today: people automatically enrolled in National Employment Savings Trust pension schemes have benefitted by saving for retirement, but still have few other savings to fall back on

New BLOG from @usociety.bsky.social - The minimum wage and career progress, by Silvia Avram If the minimum wage goes up, do people’s chances of moving to a better-paid job go down? www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

Our latest podcast looks at how families are affected by benefit cuts and volatile incomes – with @gmari.bsky.social ‪@essb-erasmusuni010.bsky.social and Sara Ogilvie, Director of Policy, Rights and Advocacy @cpaguk.bsky.social

Upcoming training events for @usociety.bsky.social www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/events/ Introduction to Understanding Society Jun 9th - 10th Using UKHLS child and youth data Jun 11th Geographical data linkage Jun 12th Introduction to linear panel data methods Jun 19th

Our latest blog is from Silvia Avram @iseressex.bsky.social: minimum wages can reduce inequality – but do they reduce people’s chances of moving to a better paid job?

Our latest blog is from Silvia Avram @iseressex.bsky.social: minimum wages can reduce inequality – but do they reduce people’s chances of moving to a better paid job?

It was great to contribute to this study discovering the genetic basis of the devastating condition "long covid", on behalf of @usociety.bsky.social. The study coordinators were fantastic and gave me a lot of support through my first GWAS. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We've just published new Working Papers on solutions to zero weights, the impact of mixed mode survey design, evaluating survey dataset performance during covid, and nonresponse bias in sample sub-groups. Find all our Working Papers on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

💻 Are you interested in learning how to code, but struggling to know where to start? Then join our Code Anxiety Club! Our first session will be on 27 May at 1pm. There's no need to book, just access each livestream from the following link: ukdataservice.ac.uk/2025/05/20/j...

We've just published new Working Papers on solutions to zero weights, the impact of mixed mode survey design, evaluating survey dataset performance during covid, and nonresponse bias in sample sub-groups. Find all our Working Papers on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

Our latest blog looks at our Innovation Panel, and methods – Senior Research Officer Jim Vine on how data description chapters can improve data visibility, make it easier to understand novel data, and help users with data citation