By Stefan Sieber
Run every two years since 2004, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) allows to study the effect of health, social, economic and environmental factors on the life course of individuals across Europe. The data set includes information on 140,000 individuals aged 50+ in 28 European countries and Israel. Its questionnaire contains all important areas of the respondents’ life histories, including civil status, children, housing, work history and more detailed questions on health and health care.