Data for Study of Aging or Retirement Issues.

  • AHEAD.   The focus of the AHEAD survey is to understand the impacts and interrelationships of changes and transitions for older Americans in three major domains: health, financial, and family. The questions included in the interview were designed to reflect as much as possible analytic and policy interests of those from a variety of disciplines who are working in the area aging.  This data is available from the HRS or Rand.
  • Current Population Survey is a monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households on labor market issues.   Various months of the data are available from ICPSR, NBER, or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.    The basic questionairre is asked monthly and  special supplements cover several topics relevant to aging and retirement.   A listing of the supplements is available at UCSD.  
  • Form 5500 Data.   Contains IRS data collected from pension plan filings of form 5500.   This data includes information on plan type, number of participants, funding, asset allocation, returns and other pension plan data.   A copy of the form 5500 is available from the Employee Benefit Security Administration. 
  • National Compensation Survey (NCS).   BLS survey of employers with information on wide range of  employee benefits (pensions, health insurance, vacation, etc)
  • Health and Retirement Study.  The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) surveys more than 22,000 Americans over the age of 50 every two years. Supported by the National Institute on Aging (U01 AGO 9740), the study paints an emerging portrait of an aging America's physical and mental health, insurance coverage, financial status, family support systems, labor market status, and retirement planning.  This data is available directly from the HRS web site or merged waves  are available as SAS data sets from Rand. 
  • Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS).   Data extraction system to create samples of U.S. census data between 1850 and 2000.  Compliments of Univ. of Minnesota.
  • Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).   Wide range of data sets available. 
  • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID):  Begun in 1968, the PSID is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals (men, women, and children) and the family units in which they reside. It emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior, but its content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures. As a consequence of low attrition rates and the success in following young adults as they form their own families and recontact efforts (of those declining an interview in prior years), the sample size has grown from 4,800 families in 1968 to more than 7,000 families in 2001. At the conclusion of 2003 data collection, the PSID will have collected information about more than 65,000 individuals spanning as much as 36 years of their lives   Special information on health status, health expenditures, health care of the elderly and parent's health was collected in 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993-1995, 1999-2003.   Special information assets, savings, pension plans, fringe benefits was collected in 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999-2003.
  • Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).   The main objective of SIPP is to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and program participation of individuals and households in the United States, and about the principal determinants of income and program participation. SIPP offers detailed information on cash and noncash income on a subannual basis. The survey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, and participation in government transfer programs  Of particular interest to those doing aging research are the topical modules on health, disability, &
    physical well-being and financial information on retirement accounts;  retirement expectations and pension plan Coverage; and support for nonhousehold members.
  •  Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a triennial survey of the balance sheet, pension, income, and other labor market and demographic characteristics of U.S. families. The survey also gathers information on the use of financial institutions. The links to the surveys from 1983 to 2001 provide summary results of the surveys, codebooks and related documentation, and full public data sets. Also included here are the data and related information from the 1962 Survey of Financial Characteristics of Consumers and the 1963 Survey of Changes in Family Finances.