Scientific Activities

Beside data generation, the SHP team is involved in a wide range of scientific activities and makes its data available to the scientific community.

Events

We organize an annual event, alternatingly an international conference and a methodological workshop. The conference allows panel users to meet, to discuss the use of the SHP data and panel data in general, and present their ongoing work. The aim of the workshop is to familiarise users with longitudinal analysis methods.

Upcoming in 2026

In 2026, we will organise a methods workshop.

Past events

2025

On June 4-5, 2025, the SHP and TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment) celebrated 25 years of longitudinal surveys in Switzerland.

Please find all the information here.

2024

The SHP workshop took place from June 4th to June 7th, 2024. After a one-day introduction to the SHP and data management with SPSS led by members of the SHP team, Prof. Matthias Studer and his team from the University of Geneva gave an introduction to Sequence Analysis.

2023

The 12^th International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland took place on the 14^th and 15^th of June 2023 at the University of Lausanne. You can find the program here.

Research network

Data users become members of the “Living in Switzerland” research network. They automatically receive an invitation to the Swiss Panel Conference and to workshops.

Currently, our research network has more than 1’500 registered members coming from a wide range of disciplines: sociology, economics, political science, public health, psychology, statistics, education and geography. The SHP data are not only used by academic institutions in Switzerland and abroad, but also by the public administration.

Members of the research network who wish to make changes to their profile can do that directly on SWISSUbase.

Publications of the research network

You can search the bibliographic database by title or author:

You can also access the Zotero database for more complex search options.

If you have worked with the Swiss Household Panel and miss your publication in this list, or if you want to announce a new publication, please send the complete reference to swisspanel@fors.unil.ch. Thank you for your collaboration.

The SHP is also involved in many international projects and enables comparisons with surveys or panels in other countries.

Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF)

The SHP is part of the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF). The CNEF contains equivalently defined variables for the US – Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS)/(Understanding Society), the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA), the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), the Korean Labour and Income Panel Survey (KLIPS), the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE), the Japan Household Panel Survey (JHPS) and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP).

The data is designed to allow cross-national researchers to access a simplified version of these panels with guidelines for formulating equivalent variables across countries.

An article (Frick et al. 2007) describing the CNEF project can be downloaded here.

The CNEF variables of the SHP can be obtained via two channels:

Download CNEF variables of the SHP via SWISSUbase.
Access CNEF data of all member countries via the CNEF-Homepage.

The CNEF data and documentation can be obtained via the CNEF-Homepage. However, to access CNEF versions of the data you must (1) apply to the provider in each country for permission and (2) contact the CNEF-project team to receive your copy of the cross national dataset.

Comparative Panel File (CPF)

The Comparative Panel File (CPF) is an open science project to harmonise the world’s major and longest-running household panel surveys from seven countries: Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), Great Britain (BHPS and UKHLS), Korea (KLIPS), Russia (RLMS), Switzerland (SHP), and the United States (PSID). The CPF provides an open-source code to construct a comparative dataset based on the original data from the household panel surveys. The code can be further modified and extended. The project aims to support the community of sociologists, demographers and other researchers interested in comparative life course studies. The multilevel panel data covering long periods and several general population surveys allow analysing individual trajectories, time trends, contextual effects and country differences.

See also: Turek, C., Kalmijn, M., Leopold, T. 2020. Comparative Panel File: Household Panel Surveys from Seven Countries.

Longitudinal Integration of Biographies (LIB)

The Longitudinal Integration of Biographies (LIB) is an open science initiative focused on harmonizing longitudinal data on fertility, partnership, and employment from longitudinal datasets across multiple countries. The aim is to provide researchers with consistent, comparable data across countries enhancing the scope and rigour of international research in the social sciences.

The LIB has been developed at the LabFam, University of Warsaw, by Ewa Weychert, Beata Osiewalska, Lucas van der Velde, and Anna Matysiak and includes the following databases:

Germany: SOEP (German Socio-Economic Panel)
Switzerland: SHP (Swiss Household Panel)
UK: BHPS/UKHLS (British Household Panel Survey; UK Household Longitudinal Study)
Italy: FSS (Family and Social Subjects Survey)
US: PSID (Panel Study of Income Dynamics)
Australia: HILDA (Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey)

Links to other panel studies

Other panel studies in Switzerland:

Transitions for Education to Employment (TREE)

Swiss Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (COCON)

Survey on Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

The SHP survey enjoys a favourable echo in Switzerland’s media as the articles show.

SHP in the media

2025

De plus en plus de jeunes tournent le dos au couple
24 heures, December 28, 2025

La crise du couple pèse aussi sur la natalité
24 heures, December 28, 2025

La vie à deux attire de moins en moins les jeunes
Le Matin Dimanche, December 28, 2025

Wie wir mehr Kinder kriegen: Sechs Ideen gegen den Geburtenrückgang
Tagesanzeiger, Dezember 1, 2025

Pourquoi les Suisses renoncent de plus en plus à faire des enfants
24 heures, November 12, 2025

Pourquoi les Suissesses veulent «deux enfants, sinon aucun»
Watson, October 6, 2025

«Au-delà de la tradition ? Répartition du travail rémunéré et domestique au sein des couples en Suisse»
DeFacto – plus que des opinions, August 2, 2025

«Tradition überwunden? Wie Erwerbstätigkeit und Hausarbeit bei Schweizer Paaren aufgeteilt werden»
DeFacto – belegt, was andere meinen, July 30, 2025

«Wenn du dich um keine Frau kümmerst, wer bist du überhaupt?»
Tagesanzeiger, May 19, 2025

Rezepte gegen die 2-Kind-Norm
Freiburger Nachrichten, April 28, 2025

Jamais le taux de fécondité n’avait été aussi bas en Suisse
Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Forum, April 5, 2025

Divorce: Les femmes payent le prix fort
Dorian Kessler, Professor at Bern University of Applied Sciences
RTS – Forum, March 18, 2025

Même chez les couples progressistes, des freins à une répartition du travail égalitaire
Le Temps, March 13, 2025

2024

Sind Sie ein ängstlicher Typ?
Tagesanzeiger, October 18, 2024

Sind Sie risikoscheu?
Tagesanzeiger, September 20, 2024

Jeunesse, lʹultra moderne solitude
Marieke Voorpostel, Deputy head of group SHP
RTS La 1^ère – Les Echos de Vacarme, September 15, 2024

Les Suisses ont un bon moral mais sont inquiets face à l’avenir (starting at minute 15)
Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – La Matinale, September 5, 2024

Deux jeunes hommes sur trois sont célibataires en Suisse
24 heures, July 31, 2024

Il faut se préparer à un avenir sans enfants
Le Matin Dimanche, July 28, 2024

Einsamkeitsepidemie der Männer: Zwei von drei jungen Schweizern haben keine Beziehung
Tagesanzeiger, July 26, 2024

Glauben Sie an Gott?
Tagesanzeiger, May 3, 2024

Also doch Helikoptereltern
NZZ am Sonntag, March 17, 2024

Die Qual der Männer auf dem Liebesmarkt: Die Zahl der unfreiwilligen Junggesellen in der Schweiz wächst
NZZ am Sonntag, February 24, 2024

Faut-il inciter la population suisse à faire des enfants?
Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Forum, January 23, 2024

2023

Soziologin Laura Bernardi über das Phänomen unfreiwillige Single-Männer
Blick, December 4, 2023

In This Country, Most People Rent for Life. Is That Really What They Want?
The New York Times, November 6, 2023

Eclairage et commentaires de certains des résultats d’un grand sondage d’opinion de la SSR à la lumière de l’enquête «Vivre en Suisse»
Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Forum, August 23, 2023

Clémentine Rossier, démographe: «La plupart des jeunes Suisses disent vouloir des enfants, beaucoup n’en font pas»
Le Temps, August 1, 2023

Pourquoi les Suisses font moins d’enfants ?
Interview with Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Forum, July 19, 2023

Et si on touchait l’AVS en fonction du nombre d’enfants?
20 Minutes, July 16, 2023

Trend zur Kinderlosigkeit beschleunigt sich markant
NZZ am Sonntag, July 16, 2023

Rise of voluntary childlessness poses a demographic challenge in Switzerland
The Rising Nepal, July 1, 2023

Erst teuer studieren, dann Steuern optimieren
NZZ am Sonntag, March 12, 2023

La santé, cette oubliée du débat
Le Temps, February 1, 2023

Bin ich optimistisch?
Tagesanzeiger, January 27, 2023

Mariage, un rêve et des promesses
Interview (French) with Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Les Echos de Vacarme, January 15, 2023

2022

Faut-il introduire en Suisse le PACS pour tous?
Interview (French) with Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher at the SHP
RTS – Forum, November 15, 2022