Newsletter

National Child Development Study: children's dreams for the future 50 years on

The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is 60 this year, and some of the people taking part have been looking back to see whether what their 11-year-old selves imagined their lives would be like ever matched up to reality. The study has been following the lives of more than 17,000 people who were born in a single week of 1958, collecting information about their lives, and informing government policy on areas such as education, employment, housing and health.

In 1969, when they were all 11, the study asked more than 10,000 participants to write an essay with the title 'Imagine you are 25'. Almost 50 years later, with those children now reaching 60, researchers contacted some of the participants to see if they fulfilled their childhood dreams.

You can access these essays through the UK Data Service.

Read The Times news article featuring three of the participants' stories.

Children from lower social classes up to 5kg heavier than their more advantaged peers, new study finds

Findings from a new study using three harmonised datasets available from the UK Data Service have found disadvantaged children born at the start of the 21st century weighed up to 5kg more in their childhood and early teenage years than those from more privileged backgrounds.

In previous generations, lower social class was associated with lower childhood and adolescent weight, but social class inequalities in obesity emerged and widened at the end of the last century.

The findings, published 21 March in The Lancet Public Health suggest that Britain’s obesity epidemic has had a much greater impact on the country’s less well off.

What is fuel poverty?

• English Housing Survey
• Scottish Household Survey
• Behaviours and Attitudes of the Fuel Poor in England, 2015
• 2017 Household Energy Data Asset Registry

Where are you on the UK fat scale?

Most voters support tax rise to increase NHS funding, survey finds

Why do people become entrepreneurs?

ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize 2018

Your research has been broadcast to millions – but how do you determine its impact?

SDMX Inside – SDMX Everywhere

• A simpler, search driven interface.
• Easy charting
• An easy way to share your findings
• More ways to download data in the formats you want.
• Quicker bulk downloads of data

Using Linked Census-Survey Data to Monitor Survey Non-response

Non-response bias is the phenomenon where people with certain characteristics are less likely to respond to a survey and go under-represented in the collected data. This study investigated indicators of representativeness in survey results and how to use them to compensate for non-response biases.
 
Using the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) 2011 Census Non-Response Link Study (CNRLS), the research findings provide insight for survey organisations looking to use their resources more efficiently. The report has already been cited by Brick & Tourangeau’s “Responsive Survey Designs for Reducing Nonresponse Bias”.

Read the full report and case study.