NCDS started in 1958 as the Perinatal Mortality Survey.

The initial birth survey captured information on 17,415 babies born in a single week – or 98 per cent of total births across England, Scotland and Wales. Since then, the cohort has been followed up ten times at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 44, 46, 50, and most recently at age 55, when 9,137 cohort members took part. At 7, 11 and 16, the sample was augmented with those who had been born overseas in the relevant week and subsequently moved to Great Britain. This resulted in a total sample of 18,558 cohort members, who have been followed ever since. The tenth sweep of the NCDS originally behan in January 2020, when the cohort members were age 62, with data becoming available for researchers to use from early 2024.

Over the course of cohort members’ lives, information has been collected on their physical and educational development, economic circumstances, employment, family life, health behaviour, wellbeing, social participation and attitudes. The main data collection methods used during the study have included questionnaires, cognitive assessments, clinical assessments and nurse measurements. Questionnaires have been used to gather a variety of information about study members, including social and family background, mental health and wellbeing, income and housing, and marriage and employment status. Cognitive assessments have measured verbal and language ability in childhood, as well as literacy and numeracy from adolescence into later life. Medical examinations and nurse measurements have provided information about bone development in the early years to heart problems in middle age. The study has also collected blood samples to see how people’s health is linked to their genes.