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The impact of Understanding Society

How our data makes a difference for organisations from charities to government.

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New briefing note: Growth with purpose

Understanding Society outlines policy ideas for productivity and fairness.
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Children’s Society: young people’s wellbeing significantly lower

Children’s Society outlines significant decline in children’s happiness with their life as a whole
Two people at a table, one instructing the other in book-keeping

Training can boost job mobility and pay growth

New report calls for government and business investment in skills
Sushi Rolls not Gender Roles by Jeanne Menjoulet

Understanding Society used for Gender Equality Index

New tool measures men’s and women’s socioeconomic outcomes across UK
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Authoritarian parents have negative effects on behaviour

A new ‘explainer’ from Understanding Society sets out how the Welsh Government has used Understanding Society data
Palace of Westminster

Lords Committee cites Understanding Society in home-working report

House of Lords Home-based Working Committee says working from home could support government plans to get people back into work
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Children’s worries include good grades and rising prices

Children’s average happiness is lower across six aspects of life in 2022/23 compared to 2009/10
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Childcare more common in higher income families

Welsh Government uses Understanding Society to investigate childcare and effects on children
Two masked disabled people of color chat and walk through an outdoor courtyard, photographed from the back. One walks with a cane.

Wellbeing boost from disability benefits outweighs cost

Wellbeing boost from disability benefits worth £12,300 per person
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Young adults in coastal areas face ‘double whammy of poor mental health’

Research shows lower self-rated mental health and a higher likelihood of undiagnosed conditions.
Shot looking up at office blog. Sign outside building reads "Home Office - UK Visas and Immigration"

‘Hostile environment’ damaged ethnic minority mental health

A new case study from Understanding Society says the ‘hostile environment’ policy increased Black people’s psychological distress
discarded furniture in a garden

Effects of Pathfinders Programme short-lived, says case study

Impact of investment in deprived communities in early 2000s not seen after four years
A woman in a wheelchair at a meeting

UK underperforms in employment for ill and disabled

New case study says employment gap is the highest of 15 countries studied
Woman working in a warehouse

Automatic pension enrolment – little effect on savings

Policy evaluation case study shows Nest pension does not encourage other savings
job centre

Universal Credit led to poor mental health

Research calculates extra 63,000 cases of psychological distress
Raj Patel speaking in a committee room in the House of Lords

Associate Director gives evidence at Parliament

Raj Patel speaks before House of Lords Home-based Working Committee
a man and woman sit either side of a young girl on a sofa

DWP data on parental conflict uses Understanding Society

New instalment of two-yearly dataset examines relationship distress and child contact
An older woman wearing purple smiles

400,000 more carers by 2035, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation

New case study examines poverty research charity’s report on UK’s future care needs
an older man with a walking stick and a woman

New Age UK loneliness report uses Understanding Society

Report shows link to unhappiness and depression
baby looks at camer while chewing on toy giraffe

Shared Parental Leave policy ineffective, research says

No evidence of more fathers taking leave, or taking longer leave

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