German Ageing Survey

Summary

The DEAS is a suitable data set to analyse social change and the consequences of an ageing society. It has a cohort-sequential design, so empirical analyses can be conducted in different ways – with a cross-sectional, a longitudinal or a cohort focus. The DEAS stands out because of his interdisciplinary approach. It is a multi-topic dataset, therefore items can be analysed in the context of many other variables, e.g. family structures, socio-economic status, health, attitudes on age, regional variables. Moreover, the German Ageing Survey includes variables on a wide variety of topics combining psychological, economic and sociological aspects as well as subjective indicators. For the topic “Social Systems and Welfare State” the DEAS provides information on various aspects of the socio-economic status, on employment and transition to retirement, on household incomes, financial transfers and living standards. There is no information on foreigners living in Germany (with the exception of the wave in 2002) or on people not living in private households (these groups are not in the sample). The very old population is missing or underrepresented. Nevertheless, it can be pointed out that there is good documentation (survey instruments, methodological reports, codebooks, correspondence of variables) available on the website of the Research Data Centre (https://www.dza.de/en/fdz/research-data-centre-of-the-german-ageing-survey-fdz-deas/deas-documentation.html).

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same
Other: Cohort-sequential design

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire

Access to data

Conditions of access
Available for scientific, non-profit use

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
anonymised microdata

Formats available
SPSS, STATA

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Wave 1: Data collected in 1996 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.1996.M.001) with a sample size of 4, 838 individuals. Wave 2: Data collected in 2002 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.2002.M.001) with a base sample of 3,084 individuals, a migrant sample of 586 individuals, and a panel sample of 1,524 individuals. Wave 3: Data collected in 2008 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.2008.M.001) with a base sample of 6,205 individuals and a panel sample of 1,995 individuals. Wave 4: Data collected in 2011 with a panel sample of 4, 855 individuals. Wave 5: Data will be collected in 2014. The base sample will be redrawn and the panel sample will be reassessed.

First year of collection
1996

Stratification if applicable
age (40-54, 55-69, 70-85 years), sex, region (East/West)

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
national, NUTS3-level (Kreise)

Age range
baseline samples: 40-85 years; Panel sample: 40-90 years

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The survey looks at employment careers, transition to retirement, incomes, property, financial and material transfers, saving and dissaving, subjective fulfilment of needs, and living standards.

Linkage

Standardisation
Most instruments are standardised questions and scales (e.g. ISCO-88: International Standard Classification of Occupation).

Possibility of linkage among databases
not possible

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Raw data is cleaned by project organisers and checked for inconsistencies; data is further checked by the Research Data Centre and then the scientific use file (SUF) is created.

Breaks
Research group changed between first and second wave (1996: Freie Universität Berlin, since 2002: German Centre of Gerontology). In 1996, interviews were conducted via PAPI, since 2002, however, they are conducted via CAPI.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Due to a change of the research group, the documentation for 1996 is incomplete.

Governance

Contact information

Research Data Centre of the German Ageing Survey, German Centre of Gerontology (DZA Berlin)
Manfred-von-Richthofen-Straße 2
12101 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 (0)30 - 260740-0
Email: fdz(at)dza.de
Url: http://www.dza.de/en/fdz/research-data-centre-of-the-german-ageing-survey-fdz-deas/access-to-deas-data.html

Timeliness, transparency
The scientific use file is available about 2 years after data collection.