Understanding Society is one of the largest household panel studies available to study housing.
What data do Understanding Society collect?
What can you do with these data?
- focus on the different types of dwellings, the housing they live in, whether it’s owned or rented, the number of rooms in a dwelling.
- use the Study to examine the change in families and housing composition and how these are linked with changes in the housing type, location and characteristics of the houses people live in.
- look at the impact of policies, such as social security policies and housing consumption and people’s moving behaviour. Affordability of housing for different social groups.
Tips for analysts
Index terms
To find out about the variables in the Study use the index terms to search for housing variables including Housing: Size and Condition of Dwelling, Allowance/Rebates, Household Consumption: Consumer Durables.
Variable search
The Variable search helps you find the variables you need for your research and shows which data file and questionnaire module it is in.
Questionnaire modules
The questionnaire modules show the areas covered in each wave of the Study and allow you to see the actual questions asked in the survey.
Need help?
Visit our new user pathway to explore the data and online resources or contact the User Support forum if you have a question for the Study team.
Briefing note: Working at home
How patterns of work have changed during the Covid pandemic. Will home working become a permanent feature for work places in the UK?
Podcast: Who carried the work burden during COVID-19?
In this episode we look at employment and the experiences of working class women during the pandemic.
Placing wellbeing and flexibility at the centre of future work
Dr Daniel Wheatley on future trends in the UK workplace.
Working Paper: Labour mobility and earnings in the UK, 1992-2016
Fabian Postel-Vinay and Alireza Sepahsalari combine data from BHPS and UKHLS to construct time series of aggregate worker stock, worker flows and earnings.
