Child of the New Century (CNC) is a research project following the lives of a group of around 19,000 young people who were born in the UK at the start of the millennium.
We’ve followed your lives since you were babies, and we really hope you will allow us to continue to do so for many more years to come.
The UK is a world leader in this kind of research, with national studies of people born in 1946, 1958, and 1970 still running today.
Every 3-5 years, we carry out surveys to collect lots of information from you about different aspects of your lives.
The Age 23 Survey will be our first big catch up with you, now you’re into your adult lives.
This information (fully anonymised) is made available to researchers so they can learn how people’s experiences and circumstances in early life can affect their choices and outcomes later on.
In this way, the research helps government, healthcare workers, teachers and others to develop services and policies that help improve people’s health, education, development and wellbeing, both now and for future generations.
Did you know? Child of the New Century has two names. Researchers, politicians and journalists know it as the ‘Millennium Cohort Study’.
By taking part, you’re helping researchers and government find ways to make life better for your generation and younger ones too.
Child of the New Century is recording the lives of the generation born at the turn of the millennium. The purpose of the study is to understand the full picture – of your lives individually, and of your generation as a whole.
The year 2000 marked the turn of the new millennium. The UK government thought that coming of age in the 21st century was going to be different. So they asked a team of researchers to set up a study that would help them learn more about this special generation.
Child of the New Century is run by an organisation called the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), and funded by an organisation called the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
There’s a whole team of people working on Child of the New Century. Managing a study this big requires many different jobs – our team is made up of researchers, survey specialists, data managers and communications staff.
Child of the New Century is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so it’s easy for you and your parents to stay up to date with the study.
The youngest of our study members turned 21 in 2023! We celebrated this major milestone with a series of 21 stories and videos on our social channels. In these stories, we highlight the incredible contribution you’ve all made to science and society over 21 years. We also share some of your own reflections on taking […]
Researchers have used Child of the New Century to learn how circumstances in the very first stages of our lives can influence our health and development.
Children with a disability are more likely to be born into disadvantaged families than those who are not disabled, findings from Child of the New Century have revealed.
Participating in organised sports and joining after school clubs can help to improve primary school children’s academic performance and social skills, according to findings from CNC.
