ARK: Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey

Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey

The Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey (NIHPS), which ran from 2001 to 2008, was an extension of the long-running British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), and is one of two major longitudinal household panel studies carried out in Northern Ireland.

NIHPS enables researchers in Northern Ireland to carry out the kinds of analyses that have proved so useful in Britain - tracking the movement within societies of individuals and families across the years to reveal changing social patterns in areas such as social mobility, wealth and poverty and health. Click here to see examples of what the NIHPS data have been used for.

Wave 1 of the NIHPS consists of around 2,000 households and 3,500 individuals drawn from across Northern Ireland. Fieldwork for Wave 1 of the NIHPS and Wave 11 of the BHPS took place in 2001.The fieldwork in Northern Ireland was carried out by CSU. There are now 8 waves of data available for analyses.

The data for the whole of the UK, which includes the NIHPS, are available from the UK Data Service.
To see a list of the variable components that have been included in the first 8 waves of the NIHPS, click here.

NIHPS Analysis Unit

From 2003 to 2010, ARK housed an analysis unit dedicated to facilitating users in their analysis of the NIHPS data. As part of this role, ARK hosted the NIHPS User Group, as well as seminars and training courses:

The first meeting of the NIHPS User Group took place on Wednesday 10 December 2003 at Queen's University Belfast, and a short report is available.
The second meeting took place on Wednesday 16 June 2004 at Queen's University Belfast. A short report of this meeting can be found here.
Two training courses in the use of Wave 1 data from the NIHPS were held on 17 September 2003 and on 16 June 2004. You can download a copy of the Powerpoint Overheads, the SPSS worksheet and solutions used in the workshop.
A NIHPS seminar 'Taking the long view: The contribution of panel surveys to the measurement of ill-health and deprivation' was held on 7th April 2005. Click here to access the seminar presentations.
In October 2005, a seminar 'Parenting in Northern Ireland', using data from Wave 3 of the NIHPS, was carried out in conjunction with the Parenting Forum NI. To see the ARK powerpoint presentation click here and to see the Parenting Forum NI presentation from the seminar click here. A Research Update entitled 'Bringing up baby' was also produced based on the parenting data.
A seminar on 28 February 2008 used net income data from the first 4 waves to examine persistent child poverty in Northern Ireland, presented by ARK in partnership with Save the Children). To see a video of the seminar click here, to see the powerpoint presentation click here and for a summary of the Research Update that accompanied the seminar click here.
A half-day workshop 'An introduction to Stata using the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey' took place on 22nd January 2009 at Queen's University Belfast, facilitated by Dr Katrina Lloyd (ARK) and Patricia McKee (UU). You can download a copy of the Powerpoint Overheads and the Stata worksheet used in the workshop.

A guide to the British Household Panel Survey and datasets is available on the UK Data Service website.

NIHPS was replaced by Understanding Society, which began in 2009.