Linking our Lives – Details, episodes & analysis

In Episode 1 of Series 3, we’re talking about how uniquely placed the ONS Longitudinal Study is to research questions of internal migration and telling you more about this unique data resource and its potential to forward our understanding of the changes to our society since 1971.

Our LS Champions for this episode are two eminent Population Geographers, the aptly named Tony Champion, Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle and Ian Shuttleworth, Professor at Queen’s University Belfast.

Tony and Ian have worked separately and together for more than 30 years using the ONS LS on questions related to internal migration. They’re also planning to use the soon-to-be released 2021 Census data in important new research tracking trends in migration intensity. 

• The Linking our Lives Podcast is produced by CeLSIUS, the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support. 
• Read a full transcript of this episode 
• Find out more about Tony Champion and his research 
• Find out more about Ian Shuttleworth and his research

In Episode 12 of Linking our Lives we're in conversation with Dr Aitor Irastorza-Fadrique who, together with colleages at the Institute for Fiscal  Studies, has used the ONS-LS to investigate how individuals and their partners in England and Wales have responded to rising Chinese import competition in the 2000s. 

• Household responses to trade shocks is an IFS Working Paper by Aitor Irastorza-Fadrique, Peter Levell and Matthias Parey 

Read/Download a full transcript 

In Episode 3 of Series 1 of Linking our Lives, Aly Sizer from the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CeLSIUS) at UCL talks about her research on The Up-Series generation in the ONS Longitudinal Study. She explains the inspiration behind her research using the ONS Longitudinal Study  to see if the children selected for the well-known and popular Up series of television documentaries were representative of the wider population and reveals what she found and what it tells us.  

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In Episode 2 of Series 1 of Linking our Lives: England and Wales since 1971, we are marking 50 years of the ONS Longitudinal Study by asking how it has become such a gold mine of information about how our society has changedover time. We are in conversation with Rich Pereira, Director of Ageing and Demography at the Office for National Statistics who explains why, when it comes to data sources, the LS is regarded as ONS' jewel in the crown.

• Find out more about the ONS Longitudinal Study
• Get support from CeLSIUS to use the ONS LS in your research
• Find out how others have used the data in their research

Read/Download a full transcript 

In the first episode of the Linking our Lives podcast, Nicola Shelton and Oliver Duke-Williams discuss the way in which the Government went about identifying places to support through its Stronger Towns Fund launched in 2019.

Further reading:

• CeLSIUS Policy brief: Stronger Towns  

Read/Download a full transcript 

In Episode 11 of Linking our Lives, we're joined by Dr Richard Patterson, from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. Richard has been using the ONS LS to investigate the impacts of funding to support cycling in urban areas and specifically to see whether there are any differences in those impacts.

Further information

• Equity impacts of cycling investment in England: A natural experimental study using longitudinally linked individual-level Census data is research by Richard Patterson, David Ogilvie, Anthony Laverty  and  Jenna Panter and is published in SSM Population Health

Read/Download a full transcript 

In Episode 10 of Linking our Lives, we're joined by Dr Orian Brook, Chancellor’s Fellow in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Orian has been using the ONS Longitudinal Study to help investigate whether Britain’s cultural and creative industries are as open to all as some say or whether they remain dominated by the privileged few.

Further information

• Social Mobility and ‘Openness’ in Creative Occupations since the 1970s is open access research by Orian Brook, Andrew Miles, Dave O'Brien and Mark Taylor and is published in the British Sociological Association Journal 
• Culture is bad for you, Inequality in the cultural and creative industries is a book by Orian Brook, Dave O'Brien and Mark Taylor and is published by Manchester University Press and the audio book is is on Spotify 

Read/Download a full transcript 

In Episode 9 of Linking our Lives recorded at the UK Census Longitudinal Studies Conference 2022 at Cardiff Castle, we are in conversation with Catherine Bromley the ESRC’s Deputy Director of Data Strategy and Infrastructure to find out what’s needed to create a digital research infrastructure that underpins ambitious and creative research

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In Episode 8 of Linking our Lives we're joined by Drs Emily Murray and Brian Beach from University College London to discuss recently submitted evidence to the UK's 2nd State Pension Age Review using findings from Emily's Health Foundation funded research project on the Health of Older People in Places. Here they talk about the research, explain why the way we measure health matters and discuss the implications for policy makers and pensioners. 

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In Episode 7 of Linking our Lives, we're talking to Professor Patrick Sturgis from the London School of Economics and Professor Franz Buscha from the University of Westminster. Together they have been researaching social mobility for some 15 years to try to get to grips with what we really know. In this episode they discuss how and why they have used the ONS Longitudinal Study in that work, what they have learned and what policymakers seeking to tackle inequality need to consider. 

Some further reading

• Spatial and social mobility in England and Wales: a sub-national analysis of differences and trends over time

• Declining social mobility? Evidence from five linked censuses in England and Wales 1971–2011

• Selective Schooling Has Not Promoted Social Mobility in England

• Declining Social Mobility? Evidence from five linked Censuses in England and Wales 1971-2011

Read/Download a full transcript