LRHS: Longitudinal Retirement History Study, 1969-1979
Investigators: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; Office of Research and Statistics of the Social Security Administration

The Longitudinal Retirement History Study, 1969-1979 (LRHS) is a ten-year investigation of the retirement process conducted by the Office of Research and Statistics of the Social Security Administration. Six waves of data were collected from a national sample of 11,162 persons aged 58 to 63. Baseline data were collected in 1969; follow-up surveys were administered at two-year intervals in 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979. The primary focus of this study was to assess Social Security program provisions for retired workers. A broad range of information was collected from sample persons and their spouses; topic areas studied include health, living arrangements, financial resources and assets, expenditures, retirement plans and attitudes, and characteristics of worklives. This data set also includes income information from the Summary of Social Security Earnings for sample persons and spouses for the years 1951 through 1974. Widows and widowers of sample persons were extensively surveyed in the 1975 through 1979 waves of data collection.