The Understanding Society office is closed for the Christmas period between 24 December and 5 January. Season's greetings to all our followers!

New research (using Understanding Society) from Eleni Karagiannaki @lse-sticerd-case.bsky.social finds that wealth differences between ethnic groups in the UK have widened significantly since 2012/14. www.lse.ac.uk/news/uk-ethn...

Delighted to hear this, not least because this research used Understanding Society as one of its data sources! But also... (mini-🧵)

Our friends at @ukdsimpact.bsky.social and @closer-uk.bsky.social are hosting a free event in Manchester for early career researchers on perspectives on engagement and impact. Taking place on 11 Feb, the event is designed to build skills, networks and confidence in creating impact.

Understanding Society Wave 15 is out today! The latest wave of data can be accessed via the @ukdataservice.bsky.social. New content includes questions on pregnancies, guardians, and environmental identity. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/12...

Understanding Society Biosocial Conference 2026 - the call for abstracts is now open! Share your work on topics that combine biological and social data. Deadline for abstracts: 20 March In-person conference: 15 October Submit your abstract: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/12...

New on our website today: how @heejungchung.bsky.social and a team at @giwlkings.bsky.social used Understanding Society data in the new Gender Equality Index UK

A characteristically fascinating piece of work from Giulio here - and a lovely reminder of how valuable is the ESRC @usociety.bsky.social dataset we're lucky to have in the UK

"Another productive and inspiring meeting with the Department for Work & Pensions team today, sharing our findings from our @ukri.org ESRC-funded project on minority ethnic differentials in #pensions," says CPC-CG member Athina Vlachantoni (@unisouthampton.bsky.social @usociety.bsky.social)

New case study published today: Welsh Government used Understanding Society to look at parenting before law banning physical punishment

UK social science delivers real-life impact at local, national & global scales. E.g. @usociety.bsky.social is one of the largest long-term panel studies in the world, drawing on data from approx. 40,000 UK households, & is used to inform solutions to a range of issues.➡️ acss.org.uk/publications...

The deadline for proposals for the Innovation Panel Competition is 12 Dec. If you've got an idea for new survey content or a methodological experiment that you'd like to try apply now! www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/innovation-p...

Our latest podcast episode looks at our increasingly digital lives and how they affect our wellbeing, with guests Dr Daniel Wheatley from @unibirmingham.bsky.social, and Abigail Coxon, principal Economist at the Youth Futures Foundation

The @hlhomeworking.parliament.uk report, Is working from home working?, used multiple sources, including written evidence from researchers who had used Understanding Society, and oral evidence, including from Raj Patel, Associate Director of Policy and Impact Fellow at Understanding Society

New blog post: Longitudinal Mediation in R – A Hands-On Guide A simple walk-through of how to model indirect effects over time using lavaan in R. 🔗 longitudinalanalysis.com/longitudinal... #RStats #LongitudinalData #MediationAnalysis @usociety.bsky.social @ncrm.ac.uk

Really excited to see this published and honoured to have contributed a chapter with the brilliant @profcarycooper.bsky.social, on business schools' and business leaders' opportunity to support workplace #wellbeing, and, of course, #productivity. Shoutout to @usociety.bsky.social for fab dataset!

Our latest blog: @anne-mcmunn.bsky.social, Professor of Social Epidemiology at UCL, sets out the evidence on how unpaid work can affect health and inequality through its effect on employment

📊 Join us on 20 November for our Data in the spotlight: Longitudinal data workshop. For more information and to book a place, please follow the link below: 📅 20 November 2025 ⏰ 10:00-11:30 📍 Online 🧷

Exploring the representativeness of web-only surveys of the general population - a new working paper from Survey Futures using analysis of Understanding Society. Read the paper: surveyfutures.net/wp-content/u...

Exploring youth transitions and outcomes through national datasets. Focusing on secondary, quantitative data - including Understanding Society. Join the @ncrm.ac.uk Data Resources Training Network webinar - 11 Nov, 12.00- 13.30. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e66aa5...

The @ukdataservice.bsky.social Data Impact Blog has a new post from undergraduate dissertation prize winner Lex Irish on his dissertation on cancer survival and income levels - using data from Understanding Society. blog.ukdataservice.ac.uk/impact-cance...

A new example of Understanding Society’s impact: @childrenssociety.bsky.social’s 14th annual Good Childhood Report has once again used Understanding Society data to research trends in children’s wellbeing

New Understanding Society 2023 Calendar Year data is now available! Calendar Year data is designed for cross-sectional analysis of individuals and households in a particular year. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/10...

New article by CPC-CG and @cra-soton.bsky.social's Evandrou & Vlachantoni: Experiences of grandparent care in different ethnic communities offer more nuanced understanding of healthy #ageing, family bonds & labour market participation @uosmedia.bsky.social @bspsuk.bsky.social @usociety.bsky.social

Our latest podcast is out! @ruettenauer.bsky.social and L’myah Sherae from Enact Equality discuss air pollution, and whether it affects immigrant populations disproportionately

Our latest blog: “socioeconomic disadvantage is still a significant and systemic barrier to success”

Our Innovation Panel competition is open for another round, and accepting proposals for projects to be included in Wave 20. They can be new survey content or experiments and methodological tests. Deadline is 12 December

Due to staff sickness while Becky's away, we couldn't celebrate this transatlantic link-up at the time, so, belatedly:

In our latest blog, Peter Lynn takes an overview of survey methods, and says understanding and care are more important than budget

Childcare more common in higher income families. Welsh Government uses @usociety.bsky.social to investigate childcare and effects on children www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/welsh...

New User Guide for @usociety.bsky.social with information on the geographical identifiers and geographical classifications datasets available in Understanding Society and provides information on how they can be used. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentatio...

A new example of Understanding Society’s impact is up on our website today: the Welsh Government has used Understanding Society to investigate childcare and its effects on children

🔍 Curious about path analysis and mediation analysis? I just published a beginner-friendly guide with diagrams + R code examples. 👉 Learn how to separate direct, indirect, and total effects. Read here: longitudinalanalysis.com/introduction... @usociety.bsky.social @esrasurvey.bsky.social

A new edition of the Pregnancy and Early Childhood (PEACH) datafile has been released. Bringing together info on pregnancy and early childhood, the file can be linked to the main UKHLS dataset to look at a range of child development and family topics. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

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!