Research Data Center of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a research infrastructure for studying the effects of health, social, economic and environmental policies over the life-course of European citizens and beyond. From 2004 until today, 530,000 in-depth interviews with 140,000 people aged 50 or older from 28 European countries and Israel have been conducted. Thus, SHARE is the largest pan-European social science panel study providing internationally comparable longitudinal micro data which allow insights in the fields of public health and socio-economic living conditions of European individuals.

The collected data include health variables (e.g. self-reported health, health conditions, physical and cognitive functioning, health behaviour, use of health care facilities), bio-markers (e.g. grip strength, body-mass index, peak flow), psychological variables (e.g. psychological health, well-being, life satisfaction), economic variables (current work activity, job characteristics, opportunities to work past retirement age, sources and composition of current income, wealth and consumption, housing, education), and social support variables (e.g. assistance within families, transfers of income and assets, social networks, volunteer activities). Additionally, the survey offers generated variables, for example on education and health, as well as weighting and imputation.

SHARE is harmonised with the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).

The survey’s strengths rely on three pillars: Firstly, its panel design captures the dynamic character of the ageing process. Secondly, SHARE’s multi-disciplinary approach facilitates a broad representation of the ageing process. Thirdly, the rigorous procedural guidelines and programmes safeguard the survey’s ex-ante harmonised cross-national design.

Since 2020, SHARE investigates the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19-pandemic in Europe. The data cover the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown measures in Europe in the areas: physical and mental health, health behaviour, infections and healthcare, changes in work and economic situation, as well as social networks.

For a detailed overview of all SHARE countries and waves, please visit: http://www.share-eric.eu

Researchers may access SHARE data free of charge via the SHARE Research Data Center after registration as a SHARE User.

User registration: www.share-project.org/data-access/user-registration.html

Data Access for registered users: https://releases.sharedataportal.eu/users/login.

Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe: SHARE (Wave 1: 2004/05), SHARE (Wave 2: 2006/07), SHARELIFE (Wave 3: 2008/09), SHARE (Wave 4: 2010/11), SHARE (Wave 5: 2013), SHARE (Wave 6: 2016), SHARE (Wave 7: 2019), SHARE (Wave 8: 2021) (www.share-project.org/data-documentation.html).

SHARE Corona Survey: addresses the COVID-19 living situation of people who are 50 years and older. It collects data from a sub-sample of SHARE’s panel respondents and allows examining in-depth how the risk group of the older individuals is coping with the health-related and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. The great advantage of these data is the possibility to measure and interpret differences in a cross-country and a longitudinal dimension. www.share-project.org/special-data-sets/share-corona-survey.html

easySHARE: easySHARE is a simplified HRS-adapted dataset for student training, and for researchers who have little experience in quantitative analyses of complex survey data. While the main release of SHARE is stored in more than 100 single data files, easySHARE stores information on all respondents and of all currently released data collection waves in one single dataset.

SHARE-RV: stands for the direct linkage of survey data of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with administrative records of the German Pension Insurance (DRV). Upon respondents’ consent, the German Pension Insurance provides the administrative records, which can be linked to the SHARE interviews of the same person. The data are available via the German Pensions Insurance RDC. www.share-project.org/special-data-sets/record-linkage-project/share-rv.html

Job Episodes Panel: The SHARE Job Episodes Panel (JEP) is a generated dataset based on information of Wave 3 (SHARELIFE) and Wave 7 of SHARE. It comes in the form of a retrospective long panel. The JEP contains the labour market status of each respondent throughout her/his life. www.share-project.org/special-data-sets/job-episodes-panel.html