Generations and Gender Survey

Key Features

Cross-national comparability

More than 30 countries have conducted at least one wave of data collection, including counties of the European Union, South America, and Southeast Asia. The comparative focus allows analyses of the ways in which policies, culture and economic circumstances influence dependencies between men and women and between generations.

The GGS covers a wide range of countries and territories across different regions, with a focus on medium and high-income countries. Participating countries and territories represent diverse economic, social, and political contexts. GGS-I includes 19 countries, primarily focusing on UNECE member states. As of 2025, GGS-II covers 28 countries. From the outset, it adopted a more global perspective—focusing not only on countries that participated in GGS-I, but also expanding to additional European countries (e.g., Croatia, Finland, United Kingdom) and beyond Europe to East Asia (e.g., Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, Taiwan), Central Asia (e.g., Kazakhstan), and Latin America (e.g., Argentina [Buenos Aires], Uruguay). Participating countries are expected to commit to at least two waves, although this is subject to funding.

A longitudinal design

GGS applies a panel design – collecting information on the same persons at three-year intervals – to allow the examination of causes and consequences of inequalities between genders and generations.

The GGS incorporates two longitudinal dimensions: a retrospective one which collects data on people’s life history, and a prospective (panel) one which follows people over time to collect changes in their life trajectory and circumstances. Incorporating both longitudinal dimensions in the GGS provides a rich and detailed understanding of how individuals and families adapt and respond to social and economic change, including demographic trends, shifts in family norms and values, and changes in the labour market. The unique design of the GGS offers a dynamic and nuanced view of people’s lives, providing researchers and policymakers with valuable insight into how policies can better support individuals and families in navigating complex and evolving social landscapes.

The retrospective dimension: life histories

Over the past few decades, notable changes in the timing and order of key demographic events, such as marriage, divorce, and the birth of children, took place, resulting in more complex life course trajectories. More young adults today postpone having children until later in life or have a child before getting married, thereby deviating from the traditional life course of leaving home, getting married, and having children in that order. Such changing life course patterns are detected using retrospective life course histories, i.e., gathering information about key demographic events of people from different cohorts.

The GGS collects detailed information on people’s life histories in the Baseline questionnaire. This includes information on whether and when individuals left the parental home, got married and divorced, and had children. The GGS captures thus the occurrence and timing of events as well as their sequence. This improves our understanding of how demographic events are related to one another. By delving into people’s life histories, a lot can also be learned about how different life domains are intertwined and how they shape the trajectory of people’s lives. This can help identify significant events from the past that may have enduring effects.

The prospective dimension: panel design

People experience different key events in their lives, such as leaving the parental home, starting a job, or getting married. Such life course transitions can be caused by different factors, including personal choices, social norms, attitudes, and economic conditions. Moreover, life course transitions can have a major impact on individuals’ well-being, their relationships with others, and future experiences. Many of these factors and consequences are difficult to measure retrospectively because people may rationalize or reinterpret them based on their current understanding, making it challenging to accurately capture the original experience.

The panel design of the GGS makes it possible to study the causes and consequences of life course transitions. It consists of a baseline survey that collects detailed information on the respondent’s situation at the time of the interview and a follow-up survey that interviews the same respondents later in time. Following up with these respondents makes it possible to use the rich information gathered during the baseline survey to explain the occurrence and timing of life course events in the follow-up. Moreover, it makes it possible to examine the consequences of having experienced these life course transitions.

In every round, the GGS follow-up is conducted after three (and six) years of the baseline survey. By then, sufficient time has passed for peoples’ lives to change and for them to experience key demographic events. Since demographic events tend to happen during specific periods of life, the shorter design of the GGS can effectively capture these events. In contrast to other longitudinal surveys that interview respondents yearly over an extended time (e.g., twenty years), the GGS design is more effective to study demographic events.

Examples of research questions that can only be answered with a follow-up GGS

The realizations of intentions

The GGS Baseline includes questions about respondents' intentions, such as their plans to marry, have children, or stop working. The follow-up survey provides information on whether respondents have realized their intentions. This information is valuable to determine disparities in the realization of intentions across individuals and countries. The follow-up survey can help understand the factors that contribute to the realization of these intentions and the obstacles that hinder the realization of intentions.

Some examples:

• Did people who intended to have a child at Baseline fulfill their intention? If not, did factors like union dissolution, job loss, or difficulty conceiving prevent them from having a child?
• Did people who did not intend to have a child end up having one? Was the child unplanned?
• Did parents who were not in paid employment at baseline but intended to return to work fulfill their intention? If not, what obstacles did they face?

Young people’s life trajectory

Young adulthood is a phase of life that is usually marked by many life and demographic events. It is important to track these trajectories since they can also introduce major inequalities.

Some examples:

• What has been the progress for young people who were not in school, training, or employment at Baseline? Are they still in the same situation, or have they enrolled in a training program or secured employment? Did it impact their well-being?
• Have young people who lived with their parents at Baseline moved out and started living independently? How has their financial situation changed?
• Have we been able to contact young people who intended to emigrate at Baseline? If not, do we have any information about whether they have migrated as planned?

Gender (in)equalities

One of the strengths of the GGS is the focus on gender. The longitudinal data can be used to see within families if gender inequalities in the division of unpaid work have changed.

Some examples:

• Did the gender division of unpaid work at home (housework and childcare) change among respondents who had a child between waves and their partner?
• Did partners’ division of unpaid work at baseline remain the same at follow-up? If not, what contributed to the change?
• What is the impact of a partner starting or ending work on the power dynamic between partners?

A large sample size and a broad age range

The GGS targets an average of 10,000 respondents per country and collects data on the whole life course by interviewing respondents aged 18-79. It enables analysis of numerical minorities, uncommon events, and multiple generations.

The GGS is designed as a large-scale survey, aiming to cover approximately 10,000 individuals aged 18–79 or 7,000 individuals aged 18–59 in countries where a separate ageing survey is available . This large sample size is crucial for researchers to study population subgroups—such as ethnic minorities or same-sex couples—that are underrepresented in smaller surveys. It also enables the GGS to capture rare demographic events and ensures that a sufficient number of key events (e.g., births, marriages, divorces) occur between waves to support robust longitudinal analysis.

The combination of micro and macro data

Alongside the micro data collected via surveys, the GGP has a contextual database with over 100 indicators which cover not only the year of the survey but also retrospective indicators covering the past 40 years to be used alongside the retrospective data in the surveys.

A theory-driven and multidisciplinary questionnaire

The GGS questionnaire is developed and maintained by a team of leading social scientists from demography, sociology and economics. The questionnaire seeks to bring together a wide range of subjects that examine the causes and consequences of family change.

The key guiding principle of the survey is the life-course approach, which is based on the idea that individuals follow various paths and take on different roles throughout their lives. The survey questions aim to gain a deep understanding of the decisions people make and the experiences they have as they navigate significant life transitions.

The questionnaire focuses on key life-course events such as leaving the parental home, forming first partnerships, becoming parents, experiencing divorce, and retiring. Its goal is not only to capture these transitions but also to integrate diverse subjects that help explain the causes and outcomes of such life events.

What information can we get from the GGS?

GENERATIONS
Information on respondent’s parents and parental home, contacts with parents, information on children (biological, adopted, fostered, and partner’s children), and contact with them, as well as contact to other family networks.

GENDER
Detailed information on respondent’s parental relationship quality, division of housework/childcare, childcare use, and experiences, attitudes on social roles of men and women.

FAMILY PLANS

Intended and unintended fertility, family formation and relationships (e.g., fertility intentions, reasons for (not) having children, reasons for separation).

LIVING CONDITIONS & WORK

Detailed information on respondent’s education, employment, housing, social networks, income and benefits, union membership, and division of paid and unpaid work in the household.

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

Subjective well-being, feeling of loneliness, health limitations, long-term health (contraceptive use, use of ART).

RECONSTRUCTING (FAMILY) BIOGRAPHIES

Dates and circumstances of pivotal life-course developments (leaving parental home, entering/leaving formal education, entering/ending partnership, having children, relationship ending).

Publications on the GGS

Discover key resources that provide detailed insights into the Generations and Gender Survey:

Vikat, A., Spéder, Z., Beets, G., Billari, F. C., Bühler, C., Désesquelles, A., Fokkema, T., Hoem, J. M., MacDonald, A. L., Neyer, G., Pailhé, A., Pinnelli, A., & Solaz, A. (2007). Generations and Gender Survey (GGS): Towards a better understanding of relationships and processes in the life course. Demographic Research, 17(14), 389–440. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2007.17.14

This publication explains the theoretical framework, survey design, and questionnaire structure of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), detailing its key features such as panel design, multidisciplinarity, and context sensitivity, as well as its focus on life course processes, economic factors, and attitudes, and the rationale behind the inclusion of specific topics and optional sub-modules.

Gauthier, A. H., Kong, S., Grünwald, O., Bujard, M., Caporali, A., Deimantas, V. J., Emery, T., Jablonski, W., Koops, J., Rijken, A., & Schumann, A. (2023). Data Brief: The Generations and Gender Survey second round (GGS-II). GGP Technical Paper Series. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10220746

This publication focuses on the baseline wave (wave 1) of the GGS-II. It demonstrates the uniqueness of GGS-II in terms of the wide geographical coverage and a mixed-mode of data collection, as well as the innovations in the survey content of the baseline questionnaire.