Swedish Contextual Database for the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey and the International Database of the Generations and Gender Programme
The data of the Swedish GGS will become available in 2015. The data collection envisaged for the corresponding CDB will follow the general template developed by the GGP-research group to assure comparability. It will provide economic, demographic, social, and policy time-series indicators at the national and regional levels. The data will be integrated into the comparative CDB of the GGP, but will also be available as a separate Swedish data file. The extensive content of the CDB, the enhanced metadata documentation, and the automatic geocoding make this database a unique tool for analyses of data from national and international surveys beyond the GGS, including studies of macro developments.
Swedish Contextual Database for the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey and the International Database of the Generations and Gender Programme
Project IN15-0511:1
The aim of this infrastructure project was to establish the Swedish Contextual Database (SCDB) as part of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP). The GGP is an international social science infrastructure for family dynamics and relationships (see: http://www.ggp-i.org). This research programme provides comparative, longitudinal individual-level survey data (GGS) for currently 20 countries (Australien, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia and Sweden). Alongside the micro-level data of the GGSs, the GGP has a Contextual Database (CDB) of comparative retrospective macro-level indicators that can be matched to the surveys. Additionally, the contextual database of each country is available within the Contextual Data Collection (CDC) of the GGP. The Swedish Contextual Database (Swedish CDB) was designed to accompany the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), but its indicators can also be matched with other surveys or used for other research, as well (see below).
The construction of the Swedish CDB and the data collection followed a template developed within the GGP. The template provided detailed guidelines for the collection, preparation, and documentation of the indicators. The database covers 16 main areas: Demography, Economy and Social Aspects, Labour and Employment, Parental Leave, Pension, Childcare, Military, Unemployment, Tax Benefits, Housing, Legal Aspects, Education, Health, Elderly Care, Politics, Culture. Each of these main domains contains more detailed indicators at the national or subregional (Riskområde NUTS2) level. In total, there are 243 indicators. Many of these indicators were calculated using Swedish Register Data. These indicators were not available in publicly accessible statistics and the Swedish CDB is thus currently the only database to provide them. The Swedish CDB offers a rich and unique set of time-series indicators at the national and subregional level.
The Swedish CDB is open access and can be downloaded from the Stockholm University Demography Unit, SUDA website: www.suda.su.se and from the website of the GGP: www.ggp-i.org.
At the SUDA website, the data are available in xls format. At the GGP website the data are currently (March 2018) available only in xls format in the Contextual Data Collection (CDC). The CDC contains all nationally collected contextual databases of the Generations and Gender Programme. Like the Swedish CDB these data are a unique source of data, often not available otherwise. But due to national differences of e.g., definitions, indicators may not always be comparable across all countries. All comparable indicators are integrated into the Contextual Database (CDB) of the GGP. Due to implementation of new software for the CDB and to relocation of the CDB to INED (Institut national d’études démographiques), the Swedish Contextual Database will be integrated into the CDB in the course of 2018). After integration into the CDB of the GGP, the data can be exported in other formats than xls, as well (e.g. CSV, XML). The indicators can then also be accessed in a single file in STATA or SPSS format. Online calculations and graphs with data from the CDB are also possible.
The Swedish Contextual Database was also submitted to the Swedish National Data Service and may be downloaded from their web: https://snd.gu.se/en
The main purpose of establishing a Swedish contextual database was to provide researchers with longitudinal macro-level indicators that can be matched to the retrospective data of the Swedish GGS. The Swedish CDB and the CDB in general also support other regional coding schemes, such as NUTS, OECD, so that the data can be used with other surveys, for example, the European Social Survey (ESS) or the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE). The CDB-data are also a unique source for macro-level studies or for teaching.
Researchers who want to use the CDB in connection with the GGS should note that the CDB is open access, but they need to apply to access the individual-level data of the GGS. Researchers and other people interested in research findings on family dynamics and intergenerational relationships based on GGS/CDB data may subscribe to the mailing list of the GGP. It offers a bi-monthly at glance newsletter with information about the GGP and selected research results. The GGP website also maintains a bibliography of publications based on the GGP. Users of the GGS or the CDB are requested to submit their publications and/or information about it to the GGP.
For further information on the Swedish Contextual Database, in particular the data sources used and the calculation of the indicators, please check out the Readme file stored with the Swedish CDB at the respective websites. For a detailed description of the Contextual Database of the GGP and its potential, see: Caporali, A. et al. 2016: The Contextual Database of the Generations and Gender Programme: Concepts, Content, and Research Examples. Demographic Research 35(9), 229-252, http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol35/9 DOI: 10.40+54/dEMrES.2016.35.9
The establishment of the Swedish Contextual Database was supported by a grant from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ Infrastructure for Research, Grant IN15-0511:1.
If you use data from the Swedish CDB, we kindly request the following acknowledgement:
“Data from the Swedish Contextual Database (SCDB) were provided by Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA) in connection with the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP). The collection of the data was supported by a grant from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ Infrastructure for Research, Grant IN15-0511:1.” Please also report any publication using CDB data to the GGP: www.ggp-i.org
Contact person for the Swedish Contextual Database: Johan Dahlberg and Gerda Neyer (SUDA)
Johan.Dahlberg@sociology.su.se, Gerda.Neyer@sociology.su.se
Contact person for the GGP-Contextual Database at INED:
Arianna Caporali (INED), Arianna.Caporali@ined.fr