German Ageing Survey

The survey was conducted in the winter of 2021/22 after the originally planned baseline sample for 2020 could not be carried out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, two panel surveys had been conducted: a written short survey in the summer of 2020 on the impacts of the lockdown and a regular panel survey in the winter of 2020/21. The address data collected for the original baseline survey in 2020 had been processed but remained unused. To avoid discarding this data, a written supplementary survey was conducted in the winter of 2021/22 to complement the aging DEAS sample with younger respondents. The last baseline survey had taken place in 2014, and the youngest respondents in the 2020/21 wave had already been already 46 years old.

The 2021 refreshment survey was aimed exclusively at the birth cohorts 1975-1980 to fill in the younger cohorts. This was the first written initial survey in the history of DEAS, based on a new community sampling design (cluster sampling). At the end of the questionnaire, participants were asked to provide their phone numbers to integrate them into the 2023 panel survey, provided there was prior consent.

The survey instrument was partly based on the written short survey from the summer of 2020 as well as the regular Drop-Off questionnaire. A total of 4,092 people from the 1975-1980 birth cohorts were contacted, and 1,052 valid, fully completed questionnaires were obtained from individuals aged 40 to 47.

Due to the written survey format, participants could not be asked as extensively about their life situation as in regular face-to-face initial surveys or the additional written Drop-Off questionnaire. The survey consisted of 24 pages and 69 questions and covered topics such as:

• Partnership and family
• Social networks and support
• Housing and mobility
• Subjective well-being
• Health and loneliness
• Attitudes, norms, and values
• Corona
• Self-esteem, optimism, and self-efficacy
• Sociodemographic data

Access to the Data

Detailed information about this and all previous DEAS survey waves, as well as the Scientific Use Files (SUFs), can be found in the documentation and on the DEAS project website.

Due to data protection regulations, access to the de facto anonymized datasets requires a data use agreement. The DEAS data is available exclusively for academic research and teaching and can only be accessed with written approval from the data provider. Application for free access to DEAS data: Application Form. 

The 2021 refreshment survey data is available in SPSS and Stata formats, currently with German variable and value labels (English versions will be available soon). After completing the data use agreement, the files can be downloaded from the secure access portal.