The first part of the final episode of the celebrated 7-Up documentary series will air tonight on ITV. The series has tracked the experiences of fourteen people since 1964, delivering updates every seven years on how their lives have changed.
In addition to captivating audiences, the series stands out as an illustration of the power of longitudinal studies. By repeatedly observing the same subjects over time, 7-Up has provided vivid snapshots of life across the UK over the last six decades.
The final instalment, titled 70-Up, will be shown in two parts, with the first airing tonight and the second on 22 September. The full series can be viewed on the ITV website.
Longitudinal data
While the 7-Up series ranks as an unprecedented piece of television, other longitudinal surveys have sought to provide more comprehensive data on how life has changed in the UK. Indeed, Britain is home to several key longitudinal studies, including major panel and internationally-renowned cohort studies. Many of these are available in the UK Data Service’s vast collection of datasets.
Among these, the closest parallel to 7-Up is the National Child Development Study, which follows the lives of a cohort of people living in Great Britain who were born in one particular week in 1958. The study has gathered data from over 17,000 individuals, covering topics such as physical and educational development, economic circumstances, employment, family life, health behaviour, wellbeing, social participation and attitudes.
Similar studies include the 1970 British Cohort Study, based on more than 17,000 individuals born in one week in 1970, and the Millennium Cohort Study, tracking around 19,000 people born at the turn of the century. Last year, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) also announced a new UK-wide birth cohort study, Generation New Era, which will study 30,000 children born in 2026.
Other studies like the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society have tracked entire households over time. Plus, we also hold studies in our collection that are focused on particular age ranges, such as Growing Up in Scotland, Next Steps, and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Data from these studies and many others are available via our data catalogue.
Professor Alissa Goodman – a Professor of Economics at University College London, who also used to be the Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies and the Director of the National Child Development Study at UCL – recalls first encountering the brilliant Michael Apted 7-Up TV series as a nine year old in primary school, back in 1981, not long after 21-Up had been made.
“Instead of lessons, our teacher Miss Price let us watch TV over several afternoons. I remember watching, captivated, as the lives of the children unfolded, from (as we saw it then) tiny little 7 year olds, through to awkward teenagers, and into late 1970s youth.
“Some of the captivation was simple: The mystery of life, and what happens next, resolving before our very eyes. But there was also a more serious lesson: That our social and economic circumstances from birth and onwards fundamentally shape our lives, and who we become.
“It wasn’t until I was an adult, as a young economist embarking on a career in research, that I discovered that in the UK we have a set of national, large-scale scientific studies that are also completely unique in the world.
“These are the scientific versions of 7-Up. Following whole generations born in 1946, 1958 (almost identical in age to 7-Up), 1970 and the millennium, they have followed thousands of babies from birth and periodically across their whole lives, systematically tracing their lifetime experiences and the factors that shape how their lives turn out.
“Their data are accessible and used by researchers all around the world. Over the years, they’ve spawned thousands of scientific papers, and influenced policymaking in many ways.”
Professor Alissa’s first encounter with these studies was back in the early 1990s, when the age 33 survey of the National Child Development Study – the 1958 birth cohort – had recently been carried out (and just around when the 7-Up generation were turning 35). She says that working with this data for the first time was another astounding moment for her – just like her primary school discovery of 7-Up.
“I was part of a research group trying to understand why inequality had risen so much over the 1980s in the UK, and why it was proving so stubbornly hard to shift (something we are still working on, now as part of the Deaton review).
“Entrenched economic and health inequalities, and correlations that revealed some of their core roots jumped out from the data. For example, we saw the strong links between children’s early childhood cognitive tests at the age of 7, and their educational attainment and earnings many years later. Importantly, we could see a very strong intergenerational link: Those from economically advantaged childhoods were far more likely to do well in cognitive tests and school exams than those who grew up in families who were less well off.”
She adds that as well as inequalities in education, they found another root cause of the economic inequalities that we observe in our society, which most economists at that time had overlooked, namely: Children’s mental health. They found that mental health problems in childhood are strongly linked to family background, and can have major economic as well as social consequences later in life.
“These, as well as many other findings from the study have been highly influential, revealing truths that we now take for granted: Such as the extent of the social mobility problem, the long-term harmful effects of smoking in pregnancy, the developmental origins of adult mental health problems in childhood, and the genetic underpinnings of many common diseases.
“Just like in 7-Up, these studies reveal some of the very real vulnerabilities that are emerging in older age for some, while demonstrating the protective power of early advantage, or sheer resilience to adversity in others.”
As the 7-Up series sadly comes to an end, Professor Alissa said that we can rest assured that the scientific versions of the studies will continue to advance science and improve society for many more years to come.