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!

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?