Welcome to the 1958 National Child Development Study
The National Child Development Study (NCDS) follows the lives of 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1958. Also known as the 1958 Birth Cohort Study, it collects information on physical and educational development, economic circumstances, employment, family life, health behaviour, wellbeing, social participation and attitudes.
The NCDS is managed by CLS and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
The surveys
Since the birth survey in 1958, there have been eight further ‘sweeps’ of all cohort members at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46 and 50. In 2003 (at age 45), 9,000 cohort members also participated in a special bio-medical survey so we could learn more about how development, environments and lifestyles affect people’s health.
The next survey is planned for 2013, when the cohort members turn 55.
For more information on each of these surveys, visit our surveys pages.
The data
The data for all NCDS sweeps is available from the Economic and Social Data Service. For more information, see our accessing the data page.
Support available
This section of our website offers tools and information to help researchers use the data. If you need further support, please contact our user support team.
Contact us
If you can’t find the help you need on our surveys and documentation pages, please contact clsfeedback@ioe.ac.uk
If you have queries regarding downloading the data, please contact the UK Data Archive.
Qualitative data now available from the 1958 birth cohort study
Prof Jane Elliott of CLS and Libby Bishop of the UK Data Archive discuss the rich qualitative data available to researchers from the 1958 National Child Development Study.