The growing number of elderly people in Sweden and in Europe has accentuated the need for more knowledge about the 50+ age group. This motivates the multidisciplinary project "" (SHARE) to which economists, behavioural scientists, epidemiologists and experts on health issues in more than 10 countries contribute. The aim of the project is to set up a large, longitudinal European database using interview data that can be used to analyse the complex relations between economic, health- related, mental and social factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly. SHARE is unique - no other study will include so much information about the elderly in Europe.

It is the policy of the SHARE project to make data available to the academic community for research (within the limits of data protection legislation). For this reason the data collected will become a very useful future source for research about ageing in Europe. Additional information about the SHARE project can be found in its home page, http://www.share-project.org/.