Abstract

The Swiss Household Panel (SHP) provides a unique database in Switzerland set up to observe (gross) social change at the individual and the household level and the validation of causal hypotheses (using the temporal succession of events). In 1999 the SHP recruited 5,074 households and interviewed 7,799 people - from a stratified random sample of the permanent resident population of Switzerland - about their living conditions. All members of these households aged 14 years and older are to be interviewed annually for 10 to 15 years. The Living in Switzerland survey is conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and applies various encouragement techniques so as to establish and maintain the loyalty of the households in the survey. To date, the first two waves have been carried out successfully. The survey was designed and structured on the basis of experience gathered over the past three decades in Switzerland and abroad. Unlike panels such as the SOEP in Germany and the BHPS in Britain, which concentrate on socio-economic conditions (labour market and income levels), the SHP covers a broad range of topics and approaches in the social sciences (e.g. composition of and changes to the family, health, social networks, leisure and lifestyles, political behaviour, and satisfaction). In addition to this, factual information is complemented by subjective assessments. The SHP's longitudinal data is being collected as part of the structural measures undertaken by the Swiss Priority Programme (SPP), Switzerland Towards the Future to supplement the basic information on social change in Switzerland. The Swiss Household Panel is a joint project run by Switzerland: SPP Towards the Future, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the University of Neuchatel.