About GGS
The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is a survey on life-course and family dynamics across various countries. It surveys people aged 18 to 79, with follow-up surveys to track how people’s lives unfold.
The GGS questionnaire addresses a broad spectrum of topics relevant to contemporary demographic research, including:
- Life course transitions (e.g., marriage, divorce, childbirth)
- Demographic behavior (e.g., fertility intentions, family planning)
- Intergenerational relationships
- Economic conditions and employment
- Gender roles and equality
GGS – Round I
- a three-wave panel study with three-year time intervals;
- started in 2004;
- collected information from over 200,000 individuals aged 18 to 79;
- covers 19 countries.
GGS – Round II
- a three-wave ongoing panel study with three-year time intervals;
- started in 2020;
- an updated questionnaire, renewed methodology and refreshed samples;
- covers 28+ countries.
Key Features
Cross-national comparability
More than 30 countries have conducted at least one wave of data collection, including counties of the European Union, South America, and Southeast Asia. The comparative focus allows analyses of the ways in which policies, culture and economic circumstances influence dependencies between men and women and between the young and the old.
A longitudinal design
GGS applies a panel design – collecting information on the same persons at three-year intervals – to allow the examination of causes and consequences of inequalities between genders and generations.
A large sample size and a broad age range
The GGS targets an average of 10,000 respondents per country and collects data on the whole life course by interviewing respondents aged 18-79. It enables analysis of numerical minorities, uncommon events, and multiple generations.
The combination of micro and macro data
Alongside the micro data collected via surveys, the GGP has a contextual database with over 100 indicators which cover not only the year of the survey but also retrospective indicators covering the past 40 years to be used alongside the retrospective data in the surveys.
A theory-driven and multidisciplinary questionnaire
The GGS questionnaire is developed and maintained by a team of leading social scientists from demography, sociology and economics. The questionnaire seeks to bring together a wide range of subjects that examine the causes and consequences of family change.
Publications explaining the GGS
Discover key resources that provide detailed insights into the Generations and Gender Survey:
Vikat, A., Spéder, Z., Beets, G., Billari, F. C., Bühler, C., Désesquelles, A., Fokkema, T., Hoem, J. M., MacDonald, A. L., Neyer, G., Pailhé, A., Pinnelli, A., & Solaz, A. (2007). Generations and Gender Survey (GGS): Towards a better understanding of relationships and processes in the life course. Demographic Research, 17(14), 389–440. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2007.17.14
This publication explains the theoretical framework, survey design, and questionnaire structure of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), detailing its key features such as panel design, multidisciplinarity, and context sensitivity, as well as its focus on life course processes, economic factors, and attitudes, and the rationale behind the inclusion of specific topics and optional sub-modules.
Gauthier, A. H., Kong, S., Grünwald, O., Bujard, M., Caporali, A., Deimantas, V. J., Emery, T., Jablonski, W., Koops, J., Rijken, A., & Schumann, A. (2023). Data Brief: The Generations and Gender Survey second round (GGS-II). GGP Technical Paper Series. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10220746
This publication focuses on the baseline wave (wave 1) of the GGS-II. It demonstrates the uniqueness of GGS-II in terms of the wide geographical coverage and a mixed-mode of data collection, as well as the innovations in the survey content of the baseline questionnaire.
