Understanding Society: Innovation Panel, Waves 1-17, 2008-2024: Special Licence Access, Census 2021 Middle Layer Super Output Areas

<p><span style="font-style: italic;">Understanding Society</span>, (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.</p><p>The <span style="font-style: italic;">Understanding Society Innovation Panel</span> is designed for experimental and methodological research relevant to longitudinal surveys. As far as practical its design, content, and data collection procedures are similar to the main stage Understanding Society survey. It is a multi-topic household survey representative of the population of Great Britain. Data collection takes place annually using computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), web surveys and telephone interviewing (CATI) to a small extent. </p><p>For details of the main Understanding Society study, please see study number 6614.</p>
<p>The <i>Understanding Society: Innovation Panel: Special Licence Access, Census 2011 Middle Layer Super Output Areas</i> dataset contains Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) geographic variables for each wave of
<i>Understanding Society: Innovation Panel</i> to date, and a household identification serial number for file matching to the main
<i>Understanding Society: Innovation Panel</i> data. These data have more restrictive access conditions than those available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access data' tab for more information).</p>
<p><b>Census 2001, 2011 and 2021 MSOA access restrictions</b></p>
<p>Census 2001 and 2011-defined MSOA geographic variables are also available under Special Licence access conditions to match to Understanding Society data - see SN 7637 and SN 7638. Please note that, to minimise the risk of disclosure, users may access only one of SN 7637, SN 7638 or SN 9159.</p>
<p><b>Latest edition information</b></p>
<p>For the third edition (September 2025), data for Wave 17 was deposited and all previous waves updated to include Scottish codes. The documentation has been updated accordingly.</p>