New data release: Children of the 2020s study, Wave 2

2 September 2026

Data from the age 2 survey of Children of the 2020s, a birth cohort study of children in England, are now available.

This latest data release includes information collected from more than 4,750 parents and their babies offering the latest insights into family life and early years development.

The study follows babies, born in England between September and November 2021, and their families. The second wave of data collection took place in 2023-24, when the children were 2 years old.

Commissioned by the Department for Education and led by researchers at UCL’s Division of Psychology and Language Sciences and Centre for Longitudinal Studies, and the University of Cambridge, the study will continue to survey families annually for at least the first five years of their children’s lives.

What’s available in Wave 2?

The second wave of data features detailed information on family life and the early years, including:

children’s health, sleep and language development
children’s socioemotional development
children’s screen time use
children’s home learning environment
formal and informal childcare provision and preschool education
use of health and family services
parents’ living situation and household composition
parents’ relationship with children and parenting activities
parents’ health and wellbeing.

Data are also available from the BabySteps smartphone app, which parents were asked to use to collect information on their children’s development. The data cover a wide range of topics including:

early executive function
infant sleep
use of greenspaces
developmental milestones (language, cognition, motor skills, socioemotional development)
early emotional problems
infant temperament
screentime and technoference.

About the sample and response

The mainstage fieldwork for Wave 2 of the study took place from October 2023 to February 2024 when the cohort child was approximately 2 years old.

Wave 2 consisted of an online interview with each baby’s primary caregiver, defined as the parental figure who spent most time caring for them, and an online survey with the non-primary caregiver, which could be either a resident or non-resident parent.

A total of 4,758 primary caregivers, and 1,065 other caregivers, participated in Wave 2, providing data on 4,812 children.

The sample for the Children of the 2020s study was selected from HMRC Child Benefit records for all registered births between September and November 2021.

The study was designed to boost the sample in the most deprived quintile of areas. This aims to ensure there is a large enough sub-sample to allow research into the impacts of economic deprivation on families and their children’s development. The over-sampling was based on the aggregated Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) scores for lower super output areas (LSOAs).

Children of the 2020s is part of UCL’s rich portfolio of cohort studies, which follow the lives of people born in 1946, 1958, 1970, 1989-90 and 2000-02. The first sweep of the latest birth cohort study, Generation New Era, is set to begin later this year.

Discussion and implications

Study director, Professor Pasco Fearon (UCL Psychology and Language Sciences and the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge) said: “Data from the second wave of Children of the 2020s will help researchers understand how early family circumstances, health, childcare and wider social conditions shape children as they grow up. This latest information can provide valuable insights into toddlers’ home learning environments and screen use, and their cognitive and emotional development.

“At a time when policymakers and practitioners are focused on improving early years support, reducing inequalities and responding to pressures on families, this evidence will be vital for designing services that meet children’s needs from the very start of life.”

How to access the data

Data from Wave 2 of the Children of the 2020s study are available for research purposes via the UK Data Service website.

The Department for Education have produced a Technical Report for Wave 2. This gives a description of the development, implementation, administration, and data management of the second wave of the survey, and also includes the questionnaire content.