Data Collections
Generations and Gender Survey (GGS)
The GGS is a cross-national panel survey on life-course and family dynamics of individuals aged 18–79. With its longitudinal design, it tracks key life transitions such as leaving home, forming or dissolving unions, parenthood, and more.
Info: The GGS runs in cycles, with each round starting a new sample every 10–15 years and one or two waves of follow-up about three years apart. Read more
GGS–Round I
Launched in 2004, GGS-I gathered data from over 200,000 individuals in 19 countries, creating one of the largest cross-national longitudinal resources on families and life course trajectories.
[link data availability]
GGS–Round II
Starting in 2020, GGS-II introduced an updated questionnaire, refreshed samples, and renewed methodology to provide high-quality, comparable data for today’s demographic challenges.
[link data availability]
GGS Teaching Dataset
A simplified dataset for students and teachers, extracted from GGS-II Wave 1 data, designed specifically to facilitate learning and teaching with real-world survey data.
Fertility & Families Survey (FFS)
The FFS were conducted in the 1990s across 23 UNECE member states and are the direct predecessor to the GGS. The datasets are highly comparable with GGS data and are available to registered researchers.
Harmonized Histories
Harmonized Histories is a comparative dataset created by standardizing existing survey data, primarily from the GGS, for use in event history analysis. It focuses on fertility and partnership histories.
GGP Contextual Database
This database offers aggregated demographic, economic, and policy indicators. It’s designed to be linked to GGS microdata and provides national and, where possible, regional data across GGP and other countries in Europe and North America.
National datasets
GGP disseminates and promotes GGS-related studies that build on or contribute to its objectives. These include national implementations and methodological resources that support the wider research community and contribute to the broader GGP research infrastructure.
The Netherlands Kinship Panel Study is the Dutch participant in the GGP. The Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), Utrecht University (UU), the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Amsterdam participated in the development of this large-scale database on Dutch families: the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS). The NKPS received an investment grant from the Dutch national research foundation (NWO). The research questions revolve around the theme of solidarity, which is defined as ‘feelings of mutual affinity in family relationships and how these are expressed in behavioural terms’. Four waves of an extensive face-to-face interview have been conducted (Wave 1 in 2002 – 2004, Wave 2 in 2006 – 2007, Wave 3 in 2010 – 2011, Wave 4 in 2014). The NKPS has four special features that make it highly innovative:
- it is large (N = 9,500 at Wave 1)
- it is a panel (prospective longitudinal design)
- it is multi-method (the data collection involves both structured interviews and in-depth open interviews), and
- it is multi-actor (the data are from individual respondents as well as from family members).
The release of formal restrictions on the free movement of Central and Eastern Europeans that started with the end of the Cold War and the eastward enlargement of the European Union in the 2000s have led to new migration flows in Europe. In the Netherlands, in absolute terms, Poles are the largest group amongst emigrants from the Central and Eastern European countries which acedded to the European Union in 2004. The Families of Poles in the Netherlands (FPN) survey aims to develop a database which allows examining different aspects of Polish migrant family life, including family formation, generational interdependencies, espoused family obligations and life outcomes. A blueprint for the survey is the questionnaire of the Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS). The questionnaire includes a broad array of topics including fertility, partnership, the transition to adulthood, economic activity, care duties and attitudes. As the Gender and Generations Survey (GGS) has been also carried out in the Netherlands and Poland, linking the FPN to the Dutch and Polish GGS data permits a comparison of the Polish migrant population in the Netherlands, Poles in Poland and the Dutch in the Netherlands, and it provides a unique opportunity to unravel the role of migration in shaping family life. To study the determinants of family solidarity and migration choices, following changes in respondents’ situations over time is necessary. Therefore, the FPN has a panel character – the second wave of the survey conducted in 2017 and the data is also available for download.
Who Can Access the Data?
All datasets are freely available for scientific, non-commercial use via our Data Portal. Some, such as the FFS or certain country-specific versions, have additional conditions outlined in the GGP Access Policy. Students and newcomers may start with our teaching dataset, designed for easy exploration.
GGP Data Documentation
GGP uses the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standard to document its data, stroing metadata in Colectica, a tool for managing complex data documentation. Through the Colectica Portal, users can access detailed descriptions of data collection methods, variables, and other metadata.
Citing the data
Cite every dataset you use and acknowledge each country’s funding to ensure transparency, acknowledging contributors, and support the GGP.
Data Alerts
Latest updates to our datasets.
GGS-II Wave 1 Croatia Minor Update
June 19, 2025
GGS-II Wave 1 Moldova Major Update
June 17, 2025
GGS-II Wave 1 UK Minor Update
June 17, 2025
Harmonized Histories Austria, Croatia and Germany Released!
June 5, 2025
GGS-II Wave 1 France Released!
June 3, 2025
GGS-II Wave 1 Uruguay Minor Update
April 28, 2025