Longitudinal surveys collect data about the same individual at different points in time, allowing us to track change at the level of the individual or household. Longitudinal surveys play a major part in developing our understanding of social change, including such things as the role of education in social mobility, the impact of family situations on child development and how periods of unemployment affect individual and household welfare..
The RERC (via the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London) is analysing four of the major national longitudinal studies in combination with the new rural definition, to learn more about social change in rural England. The surveys are:
The ONS Longitudinal Study which contains linked census and ‘life’ event data for one per cent of the population of England and Wales. Information from the 1971 to 2001 Censuses are linked across censuses and combined with information on events such as births, deaths and cancer registrations.
The Millennium Cohort Survey follows the lives of a sample of nearly 19,000 babies born between September and August 2001 in England and Wales: the 'children of the new century'. The first survey records the circumstances of pregnancy and birth, the early months of life, and the social and economic background of the family into which the children have been born.
The 1970 British Cohort Study takes as its subjects all those living in England, Scotland and Wales born in a particular week in April 1970. Initially, the focus of the surveys was on medical matters but it has broadened to encompass physical and educational development at the age of 5, social development at the ages of 10 and 16 and economic development at 26 and 29 years.
The National Child Development Study follows the lives of people living in Great Britain born between 3rd and 9th March, 1958. The aim of the study is to improve understanding of the factors affecting human development over the whole lifespan.
