1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

Aims
The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a multidisciplinary national longitudinal birth cohort study. Original aims were to examine the social and biological characteristics of the mother in relation to neonatal morbidity, and to compare the results with the 1958 National Child Development Study. With each successive sweep, the scope of the enquiry has broadened from a strictly medical focus at birth, to encompass physical, educational, social and economic development.

Institution
Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) - Institute of Education (IoE), UCL

Geographic coverage - Nations
England, Scotland, Wales

Geographic coverage - Regions
Nationwide

Start date
1970

Catalogue record last updated
23/08/2023

Sample type
Birth cohort

Sample details
All people born in England, Scotland and Wales in one particular week of 1970, including stillbirths. Children born in this week in Northern Ireland were included in birth sweep only. Each cross-sectional target sample also includes all those born anywhere in the world in the same week as the longitudinal sample, who are living in Britain at the time of the sweep and who joined the BCS70 sample during the school years (at least one survey instrument partially completed).

Sample size at recruitment
17,198 births

Sample size at most recent sweep
9,841 (BCS 2012)

Sex
All

Age at recruitment
Birth

Cohort year of birth
1970