About
The Harmonized Histories is an international comparative dataset that brings together biographical data from multiple existing surveys into a single, comparable format. It enables cross-national research on family and fertility behavior using retrospective questions that reconstruct individual life histories.
The dataset includes the timing and sequence of key family events such as union formation, marriage, divorces, separations, and births of children. In addition, it includes information on socio-economic status, place of residence, and childhood family background (e.g., parental divorce, number of siblings). This makes it particularly well suited for event history analysis as well as approaches like panel models and sequence analysis.
Topics
The Harmonized Histories provides detailed information across several life-course domains:
- Fertility history – timing of births, gender of children, and when children leave the household.
- Partnership history – timing of cohabitations, marriages, separations, divorces, and age of partners.
- Childhood family – parental divorce, number of siblings, and parental education and occupation.
- Residence – country of birth of respondent and parents, and current place of residence.
- Background information – educational level, religiosity, and ethnicity.
How to Access and Cite the Data
Data Access
The Harmonised Histories dataset is freely available for scientific, non-commercial use. Simply register via the GGP Data Portal.
Citation guidelines
If you use the dataset “Harmonized Histories”, please cite:
Perelli-Harris, Brienna, Michaela Kreyenfeld, and Karolin Kubisch (2010). Technical Manual for the Harmonized Histories Database. Rostock, MPIDR Working paper 2010-011.
If you use the dataset “Harmonized Histories I”, please cite:
Koops, Judith. C., Kubisch, Karolin, Beaupré, Pascale, Cabella, Wanda, Fernández Soto, Mariana, Fostik, Ana, Mogi, Ryohei, Nathan, Mathias, Pardo, Ignacio, Pedetti, Gaby, Simon, Sebastian (2022). Harmonized Histories I. Generations and Gender Programme.
If you use the dataset “Harmonized Histories II”, please cite:
Schumann, Almut, Allegra, Salvatore Filadelfo, Meli, Eleonora (2024). Harmonized Histories II. Generations and Gender Programme.
Countries, Datasets and Contributors
The following table contains a list of all surveys that are included in the Harmonized Histories. It lists the country, the name of the survey, the sample size, a link to the codebook of the original survey and the contributors responsible for the data harmonization.
| Country | Survey(s) | Sample Size | Male | Female | Codebook (PDF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | GGS-I 1 (2008) | 5,000 | 1,999 | 3,001 | Austria |
| Belarus | GGS-II 1 (2017) | 9,994 | 4,480 | 5,514 | Belarus |
| Belgium | GGS-I 1 (2008) | 7,163 | 3,435 | 3,728 | Belgium |
| Bulgaria | GGS-I 1 (2004) | 12,858 | 5,851 | 7,007 | Bulgaria |
| Canada | GSS 2 (2006) | 22,557 | 10,017 | 12,540 | Canada |
| Canada | GSS 2 (2011) | 21,052 | 9,450 | 11,602 | Canada |
| Czech Republic | GGS-I 1 (2004) | 10,006 | 4,797 | 5,209 | Czech Republic |
| Czech Republic | GGS-II 1 (2022) | 5,583 | 2,287 | 3,296 | Czech Republic |
| Denmark | GGS-II 1 (2021) | 8,269 | 3,659 | 4,610 | Denmark |
| Estonia | GGS-I 1 (2004) | 7,855 | 2,821 | 5,034 | Estonia |
| Estonia | GGS-II 1 (2022) | 8,992 | 3,897 | 5,095 | Estonia |
| France | GGS-I 1 (2005) | 10,079 | 4,371 | 5,708 | France |
| Georgia | GGS-I 1 (2006) | 10,000 | 4,405 | 5,595 | Georgia |
| Germany | GGS-I 1 (2005) | 10,017 | 4,610 | 5,407 | Germany |
| Germany | Pairfam 3 (2008-14) | 13,891 | 6,760 | 7,129 | Germany Pairfam |
| Hungary | GGS-I 1 (2004) | 13,540 | 6,023 | 7,517 | Hungary |
| Italy | GGS-I 1 (2003) | 9,570 | 4,455 | 5,115 | Italy |
| Italy | Fss 10 (2016) | 24,753 | 12,039 | 12,714 | Italy |
| Kazakhstan | GGS-II 1 (2018) | 14,840 | 5,804 | 9,036 | Kazakhstan |
| Lithuania | GGS-I 1 (2006) | 10,036 | 4,999 | 5,037 | Lithuania |
| Moldova | GGS-II 1 (2020) | 10,036 | 3,825 | 6,211 | Moldova |
| Netherlands | FFS 4 (2003) | 8,145 | 3,916 | 4,229 | Netherlands FFS |
| Netherlands | OG 5 (2013) | 10,255 | 5,075 | 5,180 | Netherlands OG |
| Norway | GGS-I 1 (2007) | 14,880 | 7,339 | 7,541 | Norway |
| Norway | GGS-II 1 (2020) | 5,031 | 2,162 | 2,869 | Norway |
| Poland | GGS-I 1 (2010) | 19,987 | 8,409 | 11,578 | Poland |
| Romania | GGS-I 1 (2005) | 11,986 | 5,977 | 6,009 | Romania |
| Russia | GGS-I 1 (2004) | 11,261 | 4,223 | 7,038 | Russia |
| Spain | SFS 6 (2006) | 9,737 | 0 | 9,737 | Spain SFS 2006 |
| Spain | SFS 6 (2018) | 17,175 | 2,619 | 14,556 | Spain SFS 2018 |
| Sweden | GGS-I 1 (2012-13) | 9,688 | 4,697 | 4,991 | Sweden |
| UK | BHPS 7 (2005-06) | 14,539 | 6,683 | 7,856 | UK |
| Uruguay | ENCoR 8 (2015) | 3,487 | 1,583 | 1,904 | Uruguay |
| Uruguay | GGS-II 1 (2022) | 7,192 | 2,608 | 4,575 | Uruguay |
| USA | NSFG 9 (1995) | 10,847 | 0 | 10,847 | USA 1995 |
| USA | NSFG 9 (2007) | 13,495 | 6,139 | 7,356 | USA 2007 |
Survey Abbreviations:
Acknowledgements
Beside the contributors responsible for the data harmonization listed in the table above, we extend our gratitude to everyone who made this project possible.
Founding Idea (2009):
The concept of a comparative database of union and fertility histories was initiated by the Nonmarital Childbearing Network, including Brienna Perelli-Harris, Michaela Kreyenfeld, Karolin Kubisch, Wendy Sigle-Rushton, Renske Keizer, Paola DiGiulio, and many colleagues from research institutions worldwide.
Project Leadership and Development:
- Brienna Perelli-Harris (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), later University of Southampton) – Project Head;
- Michaela Kreyenfeld (MPIDR) – Project Leader;
- Karolin Kubisch (MPIDR) – Led surveys' standardization and cleaning, created documentation, maintained updates, and supported users;
- Sigrid Gellers-Barkmann (MPIDR) – Managed data distribution, data protection, and user contact.
Institutional Support (2009–2015):
This project was made possible through the encouragement and financial backing of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock). Special thanks go to the MPI Datalab, particularly Vladimir Shkolnikov, for supporting the extensive data work, and to former MPIDR Director Joshua Goldstein for his commitment.
Related Projects
Changing Life Course Regimes (CLiCR)
The Changing Life Course Regimes (CLiCR) data cover 19 post-socialist contexts: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. It is constructed with the publicly available data sources: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Family and Fertility Surveys (FFS), Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS) and the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS). The standardization process is based on and largely adopts the strategy behind the Harmonized Histories. The data was harmonized by Aija Duntava and Sunnee Billingsley. The project received financial contribution from the Stockholm Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (SCOHOST) at Södertörns University and the Linnaeus Center on Social Policy and Family Dynamics at Stockholm University’s Demography Unit. Contact Sunnee Billingsley to receive the list of permissions from DHS, FFS and GGS that must be submitted before accessing the data. More information can be found here.
Understanding Society: Partnership and Fertility Histories
Based on data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, partnership and fertility histories are harmonized as part of the GGP Harmonized Histories. Understanding Society is a British household panel which started in 2009. It is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and the survey research organisations Kantar Public and NatCen. The partnership and fertility histories of adult respondents are harmonized up to wave 9. The standardisation process follows the guidelines of the Harmonized Histories and makes it comparable with Harmonized Histories data files from other countries. The availability of several panel waves makes it possible to provide two datasets: The first one includes a cross-sectional Harmonized Histories dataset with retrospective information based on wave 1, the second dataset contains updated information from the following years until wave 9. We acknowledge the work by Brienna Perelli-Harris, Niels Blom and Karolin Kubisch for making these datasets available. More information about data access and the project can be found here.
