Overview

Understanding Society is a longitudinal study based on a household panel design. In other words, the sample consists of all residents (adults and children) at addresses selected at the first round and information is collected about these sample members at each round even if they move (as long as they move within the UK). Information is also collected on on all new household members.

The following design features have guided the shape of Understanding Society:

• Large sample size (40,000 households) 
• Household focus of the design 
• Full age range sample 
• Multi-purpose multi-topic content design 
• Innovation Panel for methodological research 
• Incorporation of the existing British Household Panel Study (BHPS) 
• Adding information from other sources 
• Ethnicity research 
• Biomedical research 
• Qualitative research 
• Comparability with other surveys   

Research design and research priorities for Understanding Society have been and continue to be established after extensive consultation within the academic and policy research community.