The release of Wave 12 means that researchers can now track households in the UK from 1991 to 2021. The data are available from the UK Data Service.
What’s in Wave 12?
As well as the core content included in each wave of the Study, Wave 12 includes new questions on:
- Student loans
- Sex and gender
- Devolved elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Attitudes towards immigration
- Socio-political values
Some questions were carried in Wave 12 that were last asked in Wave 10, these include:
- Health service use
- Commuting behaviour
- Work conditions
- Transport behaviour
- Domestic labour
Modules that are asked every three years and which were included in Wave 12 are:
- Local neighbourhood
- Groups and organisations
- Neighbourhood belonging
- Political engagement and political efficacy
You can find all the questionnaires used in the Study on our website.
Wave 12 youth questionnaire
The youth questionnaire for Wave 12 include content on social media use, eating together as a family, housework, staying out at night, partnership, subjective wellbeing, free time, life satisfaction, higher and further education, smoking, alcohol and drug use, antisocial behaviour, and expectations for the future. New content in this wave includes questions on device ownership, online friendships and socialising, sleep, loneliness, and the ways parents punish bad behaviour.
Wave 12 and the Covid pandemic
The questionnaire content for Wave 12 changed partway through the fieldwork period in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The changes were to accommodate Covid related questions and the Covid-19 survey that ran during this period. Wave 12 includes a set of modules that were also simultaneously introduced for the Wave 11 survey, which was in field during in the early stages of the pandemic.
You can find more information on the changes made due to the pandemic in this guide.
Questions were included on:
- Covid-19
- The gig economy
- Employer/workplace address
- Device use and online activity
- Food bank use
- Furlough and the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS)
Access these data
You can find Understanding Society using the UK Data Service. The study number for the EUL version of the dataset is SN 6614.
Understanding Society: Waves 1-12, 2009-2021 and Harmonised BHPS: Wave 1-18, 1991-2009.
Biomarkers, genetics and epigeneticsCovid 19EducationEmploymentEthnicity and immigrationFamily and householdsHealth and wellbeingIncome and expenditureMoney and financesPolitics and social attitudesSocial mobilitySurvey methodologyTransport and environmentYoung people
