British Household Panel Survey
The British Household Panel Survey began in 1991 and is a multi-purpose study whose unique value resides in the fact that:
- it follows the same representative sample of individuals – the panel – over a period of years;
- it is household-based, interviewing every adult member of sampled households;
- it contains sufficient cases for meaningful analysis of certain groups such as the elderly or lone parent families.
The wave 1 panel consists of some 5,500 households and 10,300 individuals drawn from 250 areas of Great Britain. Additional samples of 1,500 households in each of Scotland and Wales were added to the main sample in 1999, and in 2001 a sample of 2,000 households was added in Northern Ireland, making the panel suitable for UK-wide research.
- BHPS wave 17 data and documentation are available from the UK Data Archive.
- The Wave 17 BHPS online documentation, which includes pdf versions of the latest Volume A and Questionnaires, is also available.
- The Autumn 2008 BHPS Update containing data news and information is available.
ISER runs biennial BHPS Research Conferences. The most recent was held on 9-11 July 2009. Please see the conference web pages for further details.
Problem with first version of BHPS wave 17 release
We have identified a problem with occupation data on the data file QINDRESP in wave 17 in the version of the BHPS data
released in March 2009. Unfortunately, for individuals who reported that they were still working in the same job as at the last wave, the
occupation codes in the main job were corrupted, for both the 1990 Standard Occupation Classification variable (QJBSOC) and the 2000
Standard Occupation Classification variable (QJBSOC00).
A range of derived classification variables are also affected. These are as follows:
QJBSEG, QJBGOLD, QJBRGSC, QJBCSSM, QJBCSSF, QJBHGS, QJBSEC, QMRJSOC, QMRJSEG, QMRJGOLD, QMRJRGSC, QMRJCSSM, QMRJCSSF, QMRJHGS, QMRJSEC.
The problem does not affect individuals in a new job or with a new occupational description (QJBCK1 > 1 or QJBSOCP=2 or QJBSOCP=-1).
The UK Data Archive released a replacement corrected version on 8 May 2009. We suggest users who obtained the wave 17 release before this date obtain the new version.