Timeline of studies

The Hertfordshire Cohort Study follows 3,000 people born in Hertfordshire between 1931-1939 and still resident in the county.

The Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development is the oldest national birth cohort study. It follows more than 5,000 people born across England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1946.

The National Child Development Study follows 17,000 people born across England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1958.

The 1970 British Cohort Study follows 17,198 people born across England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970.

The ONS Longitudinal Study links census and life event data for 1% of the population of England and Wales. It was started with a sample drawn from the 1971 Census and new sample members are added every year. It now holds information on more than 1.2 million people.

The Whitehall II study was established in 1985, following the lives of 10,308 participants aged 35-55 at recruitment from the British Civil Service, to investigate the causes of social inequalities in health.

ALSPAC is a study of more than 14,000 people born in what was the Avon region in 1991-1992.

Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study follows the lives of thousands of individuals within households over time.

The Southampton Women’s Survey follows 3,158 young people born in Southampton between 1998-2002.

The Millennium Cohort Study follows the lives of around 19,000 children born across the UK in 2000-2001.

Established in 2002, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing follows more than 10,000 people living in England aged 50+, collecting data on all aspects of ageing including health and social care, retirement and pensions policy, social and civic participation, and accessibility and transport.

Next Steps is a longitudinal cohort study which, since 2004, has been following a nationally representative group of nearly 16,000 in England, born in 1989-90.

Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) was launched in 2005 and has collected data on around 14,000 children born in 2002/03, 2004/5, and 2010/11, making it the largest longitudinal study of its kind in Scotland.

Generation Scotland is a population and family based longitudinal study of genetic and environmental health determinants in 24,000 individuals in 7,000 family groups recruited between 2006-2011 (questionnaire, clinic, blood, urine at baseline).

The Wirral Child Health and Development Study was established in 2007, recruiting 1233 first time mothers, partners and babies during pregnancy to identify early social, emotional and biological risks and processes involved in the development of childhood conduct problems.

The Born in Bradford study is tracking the health and wellbeing of over 13,500 families of children born at Bradford Royal Infirmary between March 2007 and December 2010.

The Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA), initiated in 2012, is following the lives of over 8,500 adults aged 50 years and over resident in Northern Ireland to monitor and examine how health, lifestyle, financial circumstances, and overall wellbeing change with age.

The Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) Study began in 2013, recruiting 8,134 men and women aged between 50-64 across England to investigate whether working to older ages is good or bad for health and how often health affects people’s ability to work in different types of job at older ages.

The second cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE2), a major study initiated in 2013 to build upon the first LSYPE, follows the lives of over 13,000 young people through the final years of their compulsory education at age 13/14 in 2013 through to their transition to other forms of education, training, and employment.