SOEP-Core v42o (Data 1984-2025, Onsite Edition)

The Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) is a representative, multi-cohort survey that has been running since 1984. Every year, individuals in households throughout Germany are surveyed by our survey institute on behalf of DIW Berlin. These respondents provide information on topics such as their income, employment history, education, and health. Because the same people are surveyed every year, it is possible to track long-term psychological, economic, societal, and social developments. To keep pace with changes in society, random samples are added regularly and the survey is adapted accordingly.

Dataset Information

Title: Socio-Economic Panel, data from 1984-2025 (SOEP-Core, v42, Onsite Edition)

DOI infoZur Erklärung von DOI und dessen Verwendung gibt es hier Informationen . : 10.5684/soep.core.v42o

Collection period: 1984-2025

Publication date: XX XX 2026
Principal investigators: Jan Goebel, Markus M. Grabka, Christian Hunkler, Carsten Schröder, Sabine Zinn, Mattis Beckmannshagen, Jascha Dräger, Andreas Franken, Martin Gerike, Daniel Graeber, Florian Griese, Jörg Hartmann, Selin Kara, Daniel Labarca Pinto, Antonia Meier, Cristóbal Moya, Jana Nebelin, Rebecca Olthaus, Marvin Petrenz, Denise Rolle, Claudia Saalbach, Sarah Satilmis, Johannes Schütt, Rainer Siegers, Elena Sommer, Hans Walter Steinhauer, Felix Süttmann, Yogam Tchokni, Knut Wenzig, Alina Zainullina

Contributor: infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH (Data Collector)

Population: Persons living in private households in Germany

Special samples: IAB-SOEP Migration Sample (since 2013) and IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of refugees (since 2016). See the chapter SOEP-Samples in Detail on the SOEPcompanion for a description of all our samples.

Sampling: All samples of SOEP are multi-stage random samples which are regionally clustered. The respondents (households) are selected by random-walk or register sample.

Collection mode: The interview methodology of the SOEP is based on a set of pre-tested questionnaires for households and individuals. Principally an interviewer tries to obtain face-to-face interviews with all members of a given survey household aged 16 years and over. Additionally one person (head of household) is asked to answer a household related questionnaire covering information on housing, housing costs, and different sources of income. This covers also some questions on children in the household up to 17 years of age, mainly concerning attendance at institutions (kindergarten, elementary school)

Citation of the data set: Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), version 42, data from 1984-2025 (SOEP-Core v42, Onsite Edition). 2026. DOI:10.5684/soep.core.v42o

If you don‘t exclude observations from the Migration Samples in your analysis, please also cite as follows:

IAB-SOEP Migration Samples (M1, M2, M7, M8, M10), data of the years 2013-2025, DOI: 10.5684/soep.iab-soep-mig.2025.

If you don‘t exclude observations from the Refugee Samples in your analysis, please also cite as follows:

IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (M3-M6, M9), data of the years 2016-2025, DOI: 10.5684/soep.iab-bamf-soep-mig.2025.

Summary: The Onsite Edition is the edition with the highest information level. Users can access additional information about the municipalities, postal codes and geocoded data of the SOEP households or data from microm GmbH on households’ neighborhoods. For more information, see the Editions chapter in SOEPcompanion.

Publications using this file should refer to the above DOI infoFind an explanation on the usage of DOI here.and cite following references

  • Goebel, Jan, Markus M. Grabka, Stefan Liebig, Martin Kroh, David Richter, Carsten Schröder, and Jürgen Schupp. 2019. The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik (Journal of Economics and Statistics) 239 (2), 345-360. (https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2018-0022)

If you do not exclude the cases of the migration samples in your analysis, then please also cite the following reference:

  • Herbert Brücker, Martin Kroh, Simone Bartsch, Jan Goebel, Simon Kühne, Elisabeth Liebau, Parvati Trübswetter, Ingrid Tucci & Jürgen Schupp. 2014. The new IAB-SOEP Migration Sample: an introduction into the methodology and the contents. SOEP Survey Paper 216 (PDF, 444.25 KB), Series C. Berlin, Nürnberg: DIW Berlin.

If you do not exclude the cases of the refugee samples in your analysis, please also cite: 

  • Herbert Brücker, Yuliya Kosyakova, Nina Rother, Sabine Zinn, Elisabeth Liebau, Wenke Gider, Silvia Schwanhäuser, & Manuel Siegert. 2025. Exploring Integration and Migration Dynamics: The Research Potentials of a Large-Scale Longitudinal Household Study of Refugees in Germany. European Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaf032.

If you use data from the SOEP-LEE2 surveys, please also cite:

  • Wenzel Matiaske, Torben Dall Schmidt, Christoph Halbmeier, Martina Maas, Doris Holtmann, Carsten Schröder, Tamara Böhm, Stefan Liebig, and Alexander S. Kritikos. 2023. SOEP-LEE2 : Linking Surveys on Employees to Employers in Germany. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik Data Observer, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2023-0031.

If you would like to refer more specifically, please also cite:

  • Schröder, Carsten, Johannes König, Alexandra Fedorets, Jan Goebel, Markus M. Grabka, Holger Lüthen, Maria Metzing, Felicitas Schikora, and Stefan Liebig. 2020. The economic research potentials of the German Socio-Economic Panel study. German Economic Review 21 (3), 335-371. (https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0033)
  • Giesselmann, Marco, Sandra Bohmann, Jan Goebel, Peter Krause, Elisabeth Liebau, David Richter, Diana Schacht, Carsten Schröder, Jürgen Schupp, and Stefan Liebig. 2019. The Individual in Context(s): Research Potentials of the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) in Sociology. European Sociological Review 35 (5), 738-755. (https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcz029)
  • Jacobsen, Jannes, Magdalena Krieger, Felicitas Schikora, and Jürgen Schupp. 2021. Growing Potentials for Migration Research using the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 241 (4), 527-549. (https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2021-0001)
  • Fedorets, Alexandra, Stefan Kirchner, Jule Adriaans, and Oliver Giering. 2022. Data on Digital Transformation in the German Socio-Economic Panel. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 242 (5-6), 691-705. (https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2021-0056)

Details on the current data delivery can be found as a supplied "WhatsNew" document in the data package or here. 

Please find all sample specific questionnaires of this year and all questionnaires of previous years on this site

1) SOEP-Core – 2025: Report of Survey Methodology and Fieldwork

1) SOEP-Core – 2025: Report of Survey Methodology and Fieldwork

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