NLS Overview

The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), sponsored and directed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, gather detailed information about the labor market experiences and other aspects of the lives of six groups of men and women. Over the years, a variety of other government agencies, such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National School to Work Office, have funded components of the surveys that provided data relevant to their missions. As a result, the surveys include data about a wide range of events such as schooling and career transitions, marriage and fertility, training investments, child-care usage, and drug and alcohol use. The depth and breadth of each survey allow for analysis of an expansive variety of topics such as the transition from school to work, job mobility, youth unemployment, educational attainment and the returns to education, welfare recipiency, the impact of training, and retirement decisions.

The first set of surveys, initiated in 1966, consisted of four cohorts known collectively as the "original cohorts." The Original Cohorts consist of the Mature and Young Women and the Older and Young Men. In 1979, a longitudinal study of a cohort of young men and women aged 14 to 22 was begun. This sample of youth was called the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). In 1986, the NLSY79 was expanded to include surveys of the children born to women in that cohort and called the NLSY79 Children and Young Adults. In 1997, the NLS program was again expanded with a new cohort of young people aged 12 to 16 as of December 31, 1996. This new cohort is the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97).

The National Longitudinal Surveys, especially the NLSY79, have exceptional retention rates. As a result, many NLS survey members have been followed for many years, some for decades, allowing researchers to study large panels of men, women, and children over significant segments of their lives.

 Status of the National Longitudinal Surveys

Survey Group

Age of Cohort in First Interview

Original Sample

First/Last Year

Number of Surveys

Number at Last Interview

Status  

             

Older men

45 - 59

5,020

1966/1990

13

2,0921

Ended

Mature women

30 - 44

5,083

1967/2001

20

2,318

Continuing

Young men

14 - 24

5,225

1966/1981

12

3,398

Ended

Young women

14 - 24

5,159

1968/2001

20

2,806

Continuing
             

NLSY79

14 - 21

12,6862

1979/2000

19

8,033

Continuing

NLSY79 children

birth-14

 3

1986/2000

8

3,391

Continuing

NLSY79 young adults

15-22

 3

1994/2000

4

3,021

Continuing
             

NLSY97

12 - 16

8,984

1997/2002

5

7,883

Continuing

 

1 Interviews in 1990 were also conducted with 2,206 widows or other next-of-kin of deceased respondents.
2 After dropping the military (in 1985) and disadvantaged non-black, non-Hispanic oversamples (in 1991), the sample contains 9,964 respondents eligible for interview.
3 The sizes of the NLSY79 children and young adult samples are dependent on the number of children born to female NLSY79 respondents, which is increasing over time.

Order Data

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Last Modified Date: March 10, 2004