Understanding Society – A household study enabling us to better understand life in the UK

Social science uses big data and long-term studies to understand our changing society to improve lives in the UK.

The challenge

Understanding Society was commissioned in 2007 with the intention of building on the success of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The challenge was to develop biosocial research still further to enable extensive comparisons of life experiences in the UK across a range of characteristics including age, ethnicity, gender and region.

The study works across the whole of the UK and includes thousands of people from each birth cohort decade. As such the study generates considerable statistical power and an ability to compare life experiences and understand how they change through time. The study also provides robust analysis and understanding of the impacts of specific events, for example floods, terrorist attacks, elections, pandemics and even scheduled events like the 2012 Olympics. The purpose of this is to provide information which can be used to address a wide range of issues in society.

The research

The Understanding Society study interviews all members of participating households to see how different generations experience life in the UK. It covers all ages and continuously collects data so that short- and long-term changes in people’s lives can be observed. It covers the whole UK so place-based differences can be understood. The study also explores the experience of ethnic minorities and immigrants. It’s a multi-topic study so provides data on a wide range of different social factors. Participants have also supplied biomarker and genetic data which means the study can investigate links between socio-economic circumstances and health. The study benefits from world-leading methodology employed by internationally recognised social scientists.

Key findings

Understanding Society has produced a huge number of important and interesting findings since its inception. It was able to provide a great deal of data to help us understand the impact of Covid-19. For example, it showed how patterns of work changed; how households coped with the economic impacts of the pandemic; how people accessed health services; the impact on young people’s education; the strains on family relationships; how different ethnic groups experienced the pandemic; and the impact on social cohesion.

The study also continues to shed light on topics such as internal migration patterns; links between housing, work and relationship stability; how education levels impact on family structures; and much more.

The study’s 2024 Insights publication focused on political identity, electoral behaviour, and attitudes to climate change. It showed key findings about attitudes to a range of issues. For example:

• political polarisation in the UK is lower when the employment rate is higher.
• one additional community pub closure relative to the number of pubs in the district increased an individual’s likelihood to support UKIP by around 4.3 percentage points.
• even strong habits can be affected by life events. Patterns of political behaviour could be more sensitive to changes in life circumstances, and political behaviour more malleable than we thought.
• in the 1970 general election 65% of 18-24-year-olds voted, compared with an overall turnout of 72%. In 2017, however, only 52% did so, while the overall turnout was 68%.
• there is limited evidence that higher education causes graduates to develop distinctively liberal political values. Instead, self-selection and stratification-based sorting are the key drivers.
• people were 3% to 4.5% more likely to believe in climate change if there was a flood within 1 or 2 km of their home than they were before the flooding. But they are still just as unlikely to change their behaviour.
• absolute denial about the existence of climate change is relatively rare in the UK, although ambivalence and non-straightforward sceptical thinking seem to be widespread.
• as of 2019, more than one in four children under the age of 18 years in the United Kingdom has at least one foreign-born parent.
• the public appears to be sharply polarised on the topic of immigration, much more so than on other issues associated with globalisation such as free trade and financial integration.

The impact

Data from Understanding Society is used by researchers, charities, businesses and UK Government departments to understand and inform solutions to societal issues, including education, employment, health and wellbeing, politics and social attitudes, immigration, transport and environment, and young people. ​

There are many instances of the study’s data being used to inform policy and practice. Here are just a handful of examples:

• Researchers used Understanding Society data to show that Shared Parental leave policy has been ineffective and to suggest better ways forward.
• The Children’s Society uses Understanding Society to look at how children’s wellbeing changes over time and identify where support is most needed.
• The Centre for Social Justice has used Understanding Society data to demonstrate how digital exclusion has exacerbated difficulties for the poorest during the cost-of-living crisis and to inform its recommendations for government policy.
• West Midlands councils use data to understand walking and cycling patterns in the region and to plan transport policy accordingly.
• The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee used Understanding Society data to understand challenges relating to productivity and working from home. This informed the Bank’s economic analysis and inflation projections which are used to set interest rates.
• The energy regulator, OFGEM used Understanding Society data in to inform its decision relating to a tariff cap during Covid-19.
• The Treasury used Understanding Society’s Covid-19 Survey to model changes in household income after the furlough was introduced.

Find out more

• Explore the Understanding Society website