UK-wide analysis

The ONS Longitudinal Study covers England and Wales only. However, similar studies now exist for Scotland (Scottish Longitudinal Study or SLS) and Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study or NILS), opening the new possibility of UK-wide analysis. The design of the three studies is similar but the sampling fractions are quite different and you must take this into account. The periods covered are also different: 1971 onwards for England and Wales, 1991 onwards for Scotland and 2001 onwards for Northern Ireland. In addition there are practical hurdles to be overcome, created by the legal restrictions on use of each study. We offer here three resources to assist those who are considering UK-wide analysis:

• Technical Working Paper: Guide to parallel and combined analysis of the ONS LS, SLS and NILS by Harriet Young, July 2009 (in Microsoft Word format; 92kb)
• Comparative data dictionary for the main variables in each study. (This is a zipped Microsoft Access 2003-6 database which you can save onto your own computer, but you will need Microsoft Access to use it; 856kb unzipped)
• Dataset structure and key linking variables for ONS LS, SLS and NILS (in Excel 2003-6 format; 60kb)