Many of the data sources on this page were discussed in this review article from the Annual Review of Sociology by Alexandra Killewald, Fabian T. Pfeffer, and Jared N. Schachner.
This dataset from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains data from 90,000 respondents from U.S. adolescents in grades 7 through 12. Data was collected from 1994 through 2008 and the survey included questions on respondents’ well being along with contextual data about their surroundings and relationships with others.
The New Immigrant Survey follows recent legal immigrants to the United States (both parents and children) for seven months, from 2003-2004. The survey, administered by Princeton University, included health measures, background, family, financial support status, general finances, and housing environment.
The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey is a longitudinal study conducted in two waves from 2001-2002 and from 2006-2008 that interviewed families across Los Angeles county, with a focus on poorer areas and families with children. All participants were interviewed twice, once between 2001 and 2002, and again from 2006-2008.
The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study sampled over 10,000 high school graduates in Wisconsin several times over a 54 year period. In addition to survey data encompassing a variety of topics including intergenerational relationships and physical and mental health, genetic data is also available for public use.
The Survey of Income and Housing and the Household Expenditure Survey were two surveys administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2015-16. Three types of data were collected from over 10,000 families: housing data, expenditure data, and income and wealth data.
The Household, Income, and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey began in 2001, and follows about 17,000 Australians every year. It plans to follow participants over the course of their lifetimes. Designed by the Melbourne Institute, the survey collects data on income, health, employment, family relationships, and more.
The Survey of Financial Security collected information on assets and debts of Canadians from September to December of 2019. The survey was administered by the National Statistical Office of Canada and sent to all Canadian households.
The China Family Panel Studies is an annual survey from Peking University that interviews 15,000 families yearly with a 79% response rate. The survey includes questions about economic and non-economic well-being (family dynamics, health, migration, and educational outcomes) of families. (Note: the webpage linked here is in English, but most of the rest of the website seems to only be in Chinese).
The German Socio-Economic Panel is conducted by the Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (The German Institute for Economic Research) and surveyed approximately 11,000 households in west Germany from 1984 to 2017 and in east Germany from 1990 to 2017. The dataset has an English companion guide here: http://companion.soep.de/index.html#. Note: You will need to complete a registration to access the data.
The Survey on Household Income and Wealth is published every other year by the Bank of Italy since the 1960s. The survey encompasses over 8,000 households and surveys overall wealth, household economics, payment methods, and more. Note that survey methodology is only available in Italian.
The Japan Household Panel Survey (formerly the Keio Household Panel Survey) samples 4,000 households annually. The households were selected randomly, but are surveyed yearly on a wide range of topics including employment, poverty, inter-household transfers of wealth, healthcare, and education. (Note: You need to make an account and fill out a data request form to access the data).
The Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) interviewed 5,000 households since 1998. The survey includes questions on employment, wages, job status, working conditions, unemployment experiences, and more. The questionnaire is freely available in English and so is the code book to interpret the data.
The Swiss Household Panel is an annual panel study started in 1999 reported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. With response rates between 80% and 90%, the survey includes approximately 5,000 households and asks questions about family, marital status, education, employment, nationality, residence, and more.
The British Household Panel Survey began in 1991 and surveys around 5,000 households annually, as well as an additional 1,500 households each in Scotland and Wales and an additional 2,000 households in Northern Ireland. The questionnaire covers education, health, socioeconomic status, household composition and conditions, income, residential mobility, and more. The overall response rate was 74% and was designed to be representative of the British population. This study is no longer running. (Note: You need to register with the UK Data Service to access the data).
The Understanding Society study is based on the British Household Panel Survey, which began in 2009 and surveys 40,000 households annually and includes many (over 8,000) of the households included in the British Household Panel Survey. The survey covers a range of economic, social, and behavioral factors. In addition to the main survey, there is also some associated health and biomarker data. (Note: You need to have a website account to access data).
The Wealth and Asset Survey is a biennial survey that began in 2006. Initially, the survey sampled around 30,000 households. The sample is somewhat skewed toward wealthier households. The survey focuses on wealth data, with a unique collection of pension wealth data and inheritance. Data is freely available online.
The Household Finance and Consumption Survey is published by the European Central Bank and surveys over 80,000 individuals across 18 countries in the European Union. The survey asked participants about their household, overall finances, assets, savings, consumption, demographics, employment, pension, and more. (Note: to access the raw data you need to complete a form and email the program. However, reports on the results and summaries are available on the website.)
The Luxembourg Wealth Study Database is a cross-national wealth database. The database includes information from several European countries, Australia, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Chile, and Japan. Variables include geographic location, household composition, health, demographics, immigration, education, wealth, assets, employment, and more.
The Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) includes 27 European countries and Israel and a total of around 140,000 individuals. The survey began in 2011, and all data is freely available online. The survey includes information on a wide variety of variables, including demographics, mental and physical health, employment, social support, housing, income, consumption, and assets. (Note: you do have to complete a user statement to access data).
The ACS replaced the long form that accompanied the Decennial Census. This is a rolling survey asking a sample of the population detailed questions. The best entries to ACS statistics are through data.census.gov or Social Explorer. ACS microdata are available from IPUMS.
Diary time use data collected since 2003 about activities individuals engage in as well as characteristics of others in their households. Includes working, educational, caring for self and others, recreational, household and religious activities.
World's largest on-going telephone health survey, since 1984; data are collected in all 50 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.