A round-up of some recent appearances in the news and across the web of data held in the UK Data Service collection…
Can you imagine your future?
In 1958, a huge, unique project began, following the lives of over 17,000 children born in one week. These people’s life stories have been revisited at age 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 44, 46, 50, 55 and (this year) 60. The project – the National Child Development Study (more background on the study here)- has inspired a range of research over the past sixty years.
One of the elements of the study which has re-surfaced was the essays written by the children at age 11, imagining what their life would be like by the time they were 25. The Daily Mail recently spoke with some of the people involved to find their perspectives on what they wrote then and where they are now. How well did they predict their futures?
Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
Middle-aged renters
The BBC used data, including the Family Resource Survey, to discover that the number of people in their 40s renting a home has doubled in past decade.
Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash
Wellbeing for all ages
Health and wellbeing are important topics that are often in the news. Two different items show different things relating to wellbeing.
Business Advice focused on the mental health of managers and what they can learn from millennials about being more open about their feelings and mental health. This fitted with the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, which identified that high earners, especially in certain professions, are more likely to drink alcohol, a situation which has increased dramatically since 2005.
The news about heavy drinking in certain professions was also picked up by the Mail, the Telegraph, the Guardian and (interestingly) the Greek site Thema. All within days of Scotland introducing a new minimum price for alcohol.
Photo by Piotr Miazga on Unsplash
Meanwhile, Age UK unveiled a report exploring how much affect creative and cultural participation has on wellbeing for those in later life. Data used by the researchers was drawn from the Understanding Society survey.
Photo by Simon Schmitt on Unsplash