Establishment of a Danish SHARE data infrastructure

Since 2004, the European Survey of Ageing, Health and Retirement (SHARE) has gathered a vast amount of micro data from more than 120,000 European individuals from the age of 50. The survey, based on interviews conducted in 27 European countries and Israel, consists of data of socio-economic status, family, social networks and health are gathered in the unique data program called SHARE. SHARE is a longitudinal survey and so far, 7 waves of data have been collected. Since the first wave of 2004, the Danish SHARE data, SHAREDK has been merged with register data from Statistics Denmark into the research infrastructure REGLINK-SHAREDK, which has improved research potential significantly. Furthermore, the SHAREDK also contains biometrical measures, which makes the Danish part of SHARE internationally outstanding. Thus, the SHARE survey together with REGLINK-SHAREDK is a major data infrastructure informing on the ageing society and the challenges connected to the demographic development. The data infrastructure is available for all researchers free of charge and ensures good quality data for their research. In April 2018 the international SHARE had more than 8500 registered users globally.