Understanding Society User Support

Many thanks for your enquiry. The Understanding Society team is looking into it and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer

Dear Micah,

Understanding Society is a longitudinal household survey which collects information on life satisfaction and mental health every year from respondents aged 16 and over. Geographic identifiers are available but for finer classifications than Government Office Region but Special Licence or Secure Access data are needed for this.

This page gives information on which geographical identifiers are available using Special Licence: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/linked-data/geographical-identifiers

Secure Access data provides grid references, but is only available to applicants at institutions of UK Higher or Further Education. Further details on conditions for the Secure Access data are here: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6676&type=Data%20catalogue#!/access

Conditions for accessing Special Licence data are here: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6931&type=Data%20catalogue#!/access

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Dear Micah,

This page shows which geographical identifiers are available under Special Licence, which is available to non-UK based researchers:
https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/linked-data/geographical-identifiers

If you want to use the neighbourhood indicators we have linked then these have been produced at the output area level, but this size area is not released. The smallest area which is released is Lower Level Super Output Area. This page give more information about the size of the areas available: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/ukgeographies/censusgeography#super-output-area-soa

Whether to use LSOA 2001 or LSOA 2011 will depend on your research question and whether any additional data linkages are planned.

Best wishes,
Stephanie