Completed projects

pairfam - The German family panel

The Germany family panel pairfam (“Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics”) is a multidisciplinary longitudinal study investigating partnership and family life in Germany.

The representative study began in 2008 with over 12,000 randomly selected individuals nationwide born between 1971-73, 1981-83, and 1991-93. A fourth birth cohort (2001-2003) was added in wave 11. Until 2022, survey data was collected annually from these individuals as well as their partners, parents, and children. Pairfam thus offers a globally unique potential for analysis of the development of partnership and generational relationships in different phases of life.

After 14 years, pairfam ended as an independent, DFG-funded project. However, the survey of previous participants ihas not come to an end, but will be continued from 2022 as part of the newly launched family demographic panel FReDA. The pairfam sample will be integrated into the FReDA surveys, meaning that extensive panel data will continue to be available for analysis.

The pairfam data from survey waves 1 to 14, the data from the pairfam COVID-19 study, and the FReDA data, including the pairfam sample, can be obtained as scientific use files.

In order to use the pairfam data in teaching - for example, for sample calculations by students - reduced versions of the FReDA/pairfam Campus Use Files are available free of charge.