Growing Up in Ireland is the national longitudinal study of children and young people, a joint project of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Since 2006, the study has provided Government with an evidence base to make informed policy decisions on a wide range of issues based on data from children and young people living in Ireland.
For over 17 years, the study has followed the progress of two groups of children: starting with over 8,000 9-year-olds (Cohort ’98) and 10,000 9-month-olds (Cohort ’08). The members of Cohort ’98 were aged 25 at their last wave of data collection (currently 26 years old), and those of Cohort ’08 will be aged 17/18 in their next wavwe of data collection (currently 16 years old). Recruitment of a new group of 9-month-olds, Cohort ’24, started in September 2024.
If you have been invited to take part in the new Cohort ’24 Growing Up in Ireland survey, you can find more information on the CSO Growing Up in Ireland web page
Latest GUI News:
- Two reports on non-resident parents, based on GUI data, have recently been published by the ESRI and the CSO.
- The 2025 GUI Annual Conference will take place on November 2nd. The call for abstracts is now open.
- The CSO have released the initial findings from Cohort 98 at age 25, findings are available here on the CSO website.
Where are we now:
- Datasets pertaining to Cohort ’98 at age 25 were archived in May 2025 – info on how to access the data can be found here.
- Letters of invitation and text messages are being sent to families of 9-month-old babies to invite them to join GUI Cohort ’24. GUI survey interviewers are calling to these families to discuss their participation in this important new iteration of the survey.
- The pilot for Cohort ’08 at 17 took place in late 2024 and preparations are underway for main fieldwork.
- Key findings for Cohort ’98 at age 25 were released by the CSO in January 2025.
- Please contact the GUI team by email only via growingup@dcde.gov.ie
