Sociodemographic characteristics

High-quality measurement of sociodemographic (or "background") characteristics is essential for any social or health science survey. These characteristics provide insights into how respondents are embedded in the social structure of a society and how this influences their attitudes and behavior. They are used, for example, to examine differences in behavior and attitudes between various social groups (e.g., men and women, younger and older individuals). Sociodemographic characteristics also play a crucial role in evaluating the quality of a realized sample and in social structure research. Countries often differ significantly in terms of underlying structures and institutions, which can present distinct challenges in cross-national studies.

Many studies, for various reasons, do not use standardized instruments for sociodemographic characteristics. To still enable comparison or even combination of data across studies, variables that measure the same sociodemographic characteristics must be harmonized after data collection. In the KonsortSWD project, sociodemographic standard variables were developed for German studies. We provide consultation to researchers and research data centers (RDCs) on the application of these standard variables and other issues related to output harmonization of sociodemographic variables in your survey data, including international surveys.