About the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)
The NLS, sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are nationally representative surveys that follow the same sample of individuals from specific birth cohorts over time. The surveys collect data on labor market activity, schooling, fertility, program participation, health, and much, much more. Choose a cohort below to learn more.
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Men and women born in the years 1980-84
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Men and women born in the years 1957-64
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Biological children of women in the NLSY79
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Mature women born in the years 1922-37 and young women born in the years 1943-53.
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Older men born in the years 1906-21 and young men born in the years 1941-52.
Who Are You?
Please indicate your NLS experience so we can direct you to a page that focuses on your needs:
Need Help Using NLS Data?
Explore the Tutorials
Learn how to approach research projects, search for and extract data, and then program with NLS data.
Introduction to the Investigator
Learn how to use the online NLS data search and extraction site to create your own data sets.
NLS Learning Opportunities: Booth Schedule at Conferences
Going to a professional conference soon? The NLS User Services booth makes an appearance at several conferences throughout the year. Stop by to get some hands-on instruction (or just to say hi).
Latest Information from the NLS
Most Recent Data Release [March 2017]: NLSY79 1979-2014 Dataset. The NLSY79 follows the lives of a sample of Americans born between 1957-64, a subset of the "Baby Boomer" generation. The new release contains 26 rounds of data. The latest round introduces new and expanded questions on educational expenditures and retirement expectations and is available to the public through NLS Investigator (www.nlsinfo.org/investigator). Note: The newest release of the NLSY79 female respondents' offspring, known as the NLSY79 Child & Young Adult dataset, became available earlier this year.
The August 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association included more than 40 presentations using NLS-related data. Here's a list of the ASA 2017 NLS-related presentations.
See our latest NLS brochure: Recent Health Research from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth.
NLS Brochures and Data Briefs available as PDFs. Need some quick info about the NLS to hand out in your classroom or give to a colleague? Click here for access to PDFs of our brochures and data briefs. The NLS brochures cover a variety of topics for all cohorts, while the data briefs are more specific to the NLSY79 Child & Young Adult datasets.
Check out our Website Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the NLS. Fun facts, user profiles, NLS language lessons, and more!! Check us out at https://nlsat50.org/.
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Visit NLS Investigator to explore and download data.