National Longitudinal Surveys (USA)

• Data description
• Time period
• Support links
• How to access data

Data description   

National Longitudinal Surveys provide observations on labour market activities and life events of seven cohorts of Americans. Seven surveys have been undertaken by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Time period

There are seven National Longitudinal Survey cohorts:

• NLSY97 1997-2009 (rounds 1-13), released June 2011
• NLSY79 Child/Young Adult (1986-2008), released September 2010 
• NLSY79 (1979-2008), released May 2010 
• Orginal Cohort-Older Men, 1966-1990 
• Original Cohort-Mature Women, 1967-2003 
• Original Cohort-Young Men, 1966-1981 
• Original Cohort-Young Women, 1968-2003.

Support links

The NLS Handbook is available on the BLS site.

Full information about the survey is available on the NLS homepage.

How to access data

First-time users should read the NLS Accessing Data Guide.

Online tutorials are available on this NLS page.

An overview of cohorts is on this NLS page.

Data homepage

Contact: Thomas Bourke at [email protected]