Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Survey & British Household Panel Survey (UKHLS)

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Survey & British Household Panel Survey (UKHLS)#

Last modified: 28 Jul 2025

1. Summary#

Understanding Society - the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) surveys approximately 40,000 households across the UK. As a multi-topic household survey, its purpose is to understand social and economic change at the household and individual levels by capturing information about social and economic circumstances, attitudes and behaviours, and health of people living in thousands of households. The Understanding Society study is a successor to the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), with the BHPS sample forming part of Understanding Society from Wave 2 onwards.

Series Descriptor Series-specific Information
Citation (APA) University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research. (2021). Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Survey & British Household Panel Survey (UKHLS). UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). https://doi.org/10.71760/ukllc-series-00022
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Owner University of Essex
Cohort 39,802 households (Wave 1 Understanding Society)
Age at Recruitment Varied
Geographical Coverage - Nations England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
Geographical Coverage - Regions Nationwide
Start Date 2009
Permitted Linkages See here
Inclusion in Linkages Consent
Cohort Profile 10.14301/llcs.v3i1.159
LPS Homepage

understandingsociety.ac.uk

Build a Data Request https://explore.ukllc.ac.uk/

2. Linkage Rates#

3. Documentation#

We are currently building a documentation storage system which will host useful documents related to datasets and data owners. We will surface these documents on Guidebook.