Explore the studies

In this section you can find out more about the longitudinal studies which form CLOSER, including details of how to access the data.

1958 National Child Development Study image

1958 British birth cohort study

The 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) follows the lives of 17,415 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1958. NCDS started in 1958 as the...

1970 British Cohort Study image

BCS70

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) follows the lives of 17,198 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. BCS70 began as the British Births Survey...

Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children image

Children of the 90s

Established in 1991, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as Children of the 90s, is a world-leading birth cohort study. Between April 1991 and December...

Born in Bradford image

BiB

Born in Bradford (BiB) started in 2007 as a response to the poor health outcomes for children in Bradford. Pregnant women were recruited when they attended the Bradford Royal Infirmary...

English Longitudinal Study of Ageing image

ELSA

ELSA began in 2002 with a nationally-representative sample of 12,099 individuals aged 50 and over. The original sample was drawn from households that had previously responded to the Health Survey...

Generation Scotland image

Scottish Family Health Study, GS:SFHS

Generation Scotland was formally proposed in 2001 (Royal Society of Edinburgh meeting). SHEFC Proof-of-Concept funding for ‘21st Century Genetic Health, 21CGH’ (2003-2006) established the ethical and regulatory framework and piloted...

Growing Up in Scotland image

GUS

Families from all over Scotland are taking part in GUS. The study provides crucial evidence to help the Scottish Government and others develop and monitor policies and services for children,...

Health and Employment After Fifty image

HEAF

People in Britain are living for longer, and an increasing number of older people are working past the traditional retirement age. There is a growing financial imperative to keep people...

Hertfordshire Cohort Study image

HCS

The Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS) comprises a nationally unique study of 3,000 men and women born during the period 1931-1939 and still resident in the English county of Hertfordshire during...

Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England: Cohort 2 image

LSYPE2, 'Our Future' Study

LSYPE2, known as “Our Future” to respondents, started in 2013 and is managed by the Department for Education (DfE). This is a major study of young people that will build...

Millennium Cohort Study image

Child of the New Century, MCS

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is following the lives of 19,517 children born across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2000-01. A renewed interest in child wellbeing in the late...

MRC National Survey of Health and Development image

1946 British birth cohort study

The Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) is the oldest and longest running of the British birth cohort studies; it is a nationally representative sample...

Next Steps image

Previously known as the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

Next Steps is a longitudinal cohort study, following a nationally representative group of nearly 16,000 people born in 1989-90 who attended secondary school in England. The study began in 2004 when...

Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing image

NICOLA

It is predicted that 1 in 4 children born in Northern Ireland today will celebrate their 100th birthday. While this trend is good news, by 2048 almost half of the...

ONS Longitudinal Study image

ONS LS, LS

The ONS Longitudinal Study (LS) was established in 1974 by taking a sample of records from the 1971 Census for England and Wales of all those born on one of...

Southampton Women’s Survey image

SWS

The Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS) is the only birth cohort study in Europe in which the mothers were recruited before conception of the child. It is run by the MRC...

Whitehall II image

The Stress and Health Study

The first Whitehall study made clear that inequalities in health were not limited to the health consequences of poverty. Important as that issue remains, the Whitehall question was why there...

Wirral Child Health and Development Study image

WCHADS, The First Steps Study

The Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) was designed to find out why some children develop behaviour problems from an early age and what factors lead to them persisting....

Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study image

Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study follows the lives of thousands of individuals within households over time.  It is an internationally recognised study and provides vital evidence for scientists...