The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) is a series of nationally representative surveys designed to monitor the effects of Russian reforms on the health and economic welfare of households and individuals in the Russian Federation. These effects are measured by a variety of means: detailed monitoring of individuals' health status and dietary intake, precise measurement of household-level expenditures and service utilization, and collection of relevant community-level data, including region-specific prices and community infrastructure data. Data have been collected 23 times since 1992 till now. Of these, 18 represent the RLMS Phase II.
The RLMS-HSE is conducted by the National Research University Higher School of Economics and ZAO Demoscope, headed by Polina Kozyreva and Mikhail Kosolapov together with Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, headed by Barry M. Popkin and the Institute of Sociology RAS.
Since 2010, the RLMS-HSE data is available for analysis, but please note that we do require an updated Data-Use Agreement to gain access to this data.
More information about RLMS-HSE project and databases in English is available on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center`s website.
What makes the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) unique?
- The comprehensive structure of the survey’s questionnaires is in line with best global practice, thus allowing for clear results and cross-country comparisons;
- Thanks to the RLMS-HSE, researchers now have access to non-state microeconomic statistics, which are generated on a scientifically grounded country-by-country basis;
- This monitoring survey includes key indicators that are often excluded from state statistics. For instance, the RLMS-HSE is the only survey to feature data on both the incomes of households AND their individual members. Thus, the RLMS-HSE offers an significant addendum to data published by the Russian Federal State Statistics Committee (Rosstat);
- The scope of daily activities on the part of both households and individuals included in the RLMS-HSE is not only valuable for analysis of separate (albeit important) issues (e.g., poverty, employment rates, investment strategies, etc.), but also helps in developing interdisciplinary explanatory models, thus boosting both the quality and depth of analysis;
- The RLMS-HSE is perhaps on the only representative microeconomic survey in Russia with a significant panel component: the same households are surveyed over long periods. This panel component significantly boosts the quality of forecasts based on RLMS-HSE data;
- Finally, the RLMS-HSE features a large section of value judgments, which ensure additional data on developments in the objective characteristics of Russian households’ daily activities according to individuals’ own views and opinions on changes in the country, thus allowing researchers to gauge and predict the expectations and plans of various segments of the population.
