National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 Cohort

The NLSY79 Cohort is a longitudinal project that follows the lives of a sample of American youth born between 1957-64. Data are now available from 1979 (Round 1) to 2006 (Round 22).

 

NLSY79 User's Guide
Includes information about the NLSY79 sample, survey procedures, and content of the NLSY79 data set.

Tutorials

NLSY79 Codebook Supplement: Appendices and attachments including industrial/occupational classifications, variable creation documentation, roster explanations, and other details designed to aid in the understanding of NLSY79 public data

NLSY79 Geocode Codebook Supplement: Documentation for NLSY79 geocode data including state and county codes, MSA codes, and college identification codes

Questionnaires: (Please note that some of the PDF files, in particular the 1993 Questionnaire, are quite large. Please be patient when opening. Contact NLS User Services if you need to obtain these files in an alternate method due to the large file size.)

Household Screener Questionnaire and
Interviewer Reference Manual (PDF)		 1987 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1998 Questionnaire (PDF)
1979 Questionnaire (PDF) 1988 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)
Drug Use Supplement (PDF)		 2000 Questionnaire (PDF)
1980 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1989 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 2002 Questionnaire (HTML)
1981 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1990 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 2004 Questionnaire (HTML)
1982 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1991 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 2006 Questionnaire (HTML)

1983 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)

 1992 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)
Drug Use Supplement (PDF)		 2008 Questionnaire (HTML)
(PRELIMINARY)
1984 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1993 Questionnaire (PDF)  
1985 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1994 Questionnaire (PDF)  
1986 Questionnaire (PDF)
Employer Supplement (PDF)		 1996 Questionnaire (PDF)  

NLSY79 Technical Sampling Report: Detailed description of the NLSY79 sampling process (PDF)

NLSY79 High School and Transcript Survey Documentation (PDF)

NLSY79 Profiles of American Youth-Attachment 106 and Addendum (PDF)

List of NLSY79 Errata (HTML)