Age 33 Survey

The Age 33 Survey took place in 1991. Over 11,000 of you took part.

What we asked

when-you-were-33-eating-chipsYou completed an interview which asked you about your job, your spouse or partner’s job, education, training and qualifications you had completed, literacy and numeracy levels, family life, housing circumstances, income, savings, debts, health, smoking, drinking and citizenship. You also completed two paper questionnaires – one called ‘What do you think’ which asked about your attitudes to a range of topics including politics, racism and the environment and one called ‘Your life since 1974’ which asked about jobs, relationships, children and where you had lived since you were 16.

If you had a spouse or partner they were also asked to complete the ‘Your life since 1974’ questionnaire.

1 in 3 of you were asked to take part in a ‘Mother and child’ study (if you had children). This involved:

  • A ‘mother interview’ which asked about family life and, for each child, details of: pregnancy and birth, health history, pre-school experience and schooling history.
  • A paper questionnaire about each child’s behaviour – completed by the child’s mother
  • Age-specific assessments completed by your children which measured different skills including reading and numeracy.

When you were 33…

  • Just under 8 in 10 were home-owners and the average price you had paid for your properties was £48,500.
  • A third of you said that your health was excellent and a further half said that your health was good.
  • Almost a third of you had spent at least one night in hospital in the previous 10 years.
  • 1 in 5 said that you had driven a car after drinking alcohol in the last week.
  • Three quarters voted in the 1987 election, with 45% of voters voting for the Conservative party.