Publication of data from the German GGS-II

Data from Europe, Asia and Latin America: The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) provides researchers with a very broad, up-to-date database from around 20 countries and territories. The internationally coordinated questionnaire and standardized instructions for conducting the survey enable international comparative analyses. In Germany, the GGS data collection is based on the FReDA surveys. This data collected in Germany can now be requested free of charge.

If you would like to work with the data set, you will find all the necessary information on data access in the GGS Round II Quick Guide.

Here you can download the documentation of the German GGS dataset in the form of the Technical Report.

The citation is: Lück, D., Englert, C., Eigenbrodt, F., Christmann, P., & Naderi, R. (2024). Documentation of The German Generations and Gender Survey, Round II - Wave 1. GGP Technical Paper Series. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12913966

Cross-national survey

This is already the second major survey wave of the GGS. In the first round of data collection (GGS-I) from 2004-2012, data was collected from people in 19 countries. These included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation and Sweden. The first survey round for Germany was carried out by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB).

An overview of the participating countries and the status of the survey can be found here.

The new, second data collection round GGS-II has been running since 2020. A new questionnaire has been developed that combines the strengths of the GGS-I instrument with new multidisciplinary modules. The survey has been launched with fresh sampling and innovations in the survey design, including the ability to conduct the questionnaire online.

The German GGS-II is based on the surveys of the German Family Demographic Panel FReDA. The data of the 18- to 49-year-old German resident population was collected in 2021 in a self-administered survey mode. By the end of 2023, around 18 other countries and territories from Europe, Asia and Latin America had already taken part in GGS-II in addition to Germany.

Unique international longitudinal study

Compared to other demographic surveys, the GGS is characterized by the following features

• International comparability: International comparative analyses are made possible by the surveys of numerous partners in different countries, by an internationally coordinated questionnaire and by standardized instructions for conducting the survey.
• Structural relevance: In order to be able to use the structural framework conditions of the respective country as a possible explanatory factor for international differences in behavior, a database ("Contextual Database") is available in which the corresponding macro data is collected and processed.
• Panel design: The fact that respondents are interviewed several times over a longer period of time makes it possible to investigate developments over the life course and cause-and-effect relationships with a time lag.
• Prospective questions: By consistently using forward-looking questions, behavior at a certain point in time can be compared with intentions and plans of action at an earlier point in time.
• Focus on intergenerational relationships: The GGS looks at relationships between parents and their children - including between aged parents and adult children, including from the perspective of the older generation.
• Focus on gender relationships: Respondents are asked for information about their current partner (if any) as well as relationship quality and division of labor in the partnership.

The survey is therefore unique: on the one hand, this is due to the wide geographical coverage, particularly the survey in Central and Eastern European countries. Secondly, the GGS is the only comparative longitudinal panel study that covers the entire age range of adults. The surveys are repeated regularly at three-year intervals so that changes over time can be investigated.

This provides scientists with high-quality, up-to-date data on families and the life courses of individuals, which they can use to provide political decision-makers with answers to current social challenges.

The Generations and Gender Survey is coordinated by a central coordination team, which is based at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague and in which the French Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques (INED) and the German BiB are involved. The NIDI coordinates the individual GGS surveys and processes the data into a harmonized data set.

The GGS-II data and all other GGP data products can be requested free of charge for scientific purposes via the GGP website. Further information on the infrastructure, the data and the application for use can be found at www.ggp-i.org.