FAQs
GENERAL INFORMATION
What is the Life in Kyrgyzstan Study?
The Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) Study is a unique, research-based, multi-topic longitudinal survey of households and individuals in Kyrgyzstan. Initiated in 2009, and it is now the longest-running panel study in the former Soviet Union outside Russia. The LiK Study tracks more than 8,000 individuals from an initial sample of 3,000 households across all seven Kyrgyz regions (oblasts) and the two administratively distinct cities of Bishkek and Osh. The sample initially was based on the Population Census of 2009 and is nationally representative and supports disaggregation by rural/urban location and North/South region. Sampling was based on the 2009 national census. The LiK survey has been conducted seven times to date, in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2025.
How often were the LiK data collected?
LiK data have been collected once a year, generally around October–November, with occasional shifts in fieldwork dates in some waves due to national elections or other constraints. The most recent wave, Wave 7, was collected in spring 2025 because of the project’s funding timeline.
Is the LiK data comparable to longitudinal datasets in other countries?
Longitudinal survey is an emerging research methodology in transitional economies. There are not so many panel data projects implemented in the post-Soviet region. Examples of longitudinal surveys that LiK is comparable to are Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) for Russia and the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for Ukraine, Tajikistan has the Household Panel Survey, which was conducted in 2007, 2009, and 2011.
Are there any plans to collect and release another wave of the LiK data?
The key investigators have made sustained efforts to fundraise and keep the LiK Study running, applying continuously for research grants. The first three waves (2010–2012) were funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and hosted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). Wave 4 (2013–2015) was funded by DFID and IZA as part of the Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries (GLM-LIC) Programme, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as lead institution, UCA as the main Kyrgyz partner, and several research institutions from Asia, Europe, and North America completing the consortium. Waves 5 and 6, in 2016 and 2019 respectively, were hosted by the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), with funding from UN-FAO and IFPRI (Wave 5), and internal contributions from IGZ and UCA (Wave 6). Wave 7 has been implemented since end 2024, hosted by ISDC – International Security and Development Center and UCA (University of Central Asia), with funding from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
How do I stay informed about LiK data and research news?
More information and news on research and the LiK conferences can be found at the dedicated website www.lifeinkyrgyzstan.org as well as in the website of ISDC at www.isdc.org.
HOUSEHOLD
What is the definition of a household?
People, both family and not related people, who share either common accommodation or common housekeeping arrangements (i.e. share or are supported by a common budget).
How are students or migrants living away treated?
They are treated as absent household members, and we do not track them. These individuals are present on the household rosters, but are left out of the individual surveys. We start tracking them again once they return to their households and share common living and household keeping arrangements.
How do I know the nature of the relationship of household members to each other?
The household roster identifies the relationship of a certain household member to a household head, but does not reveal the nature of the direct relationship between other household members. The latter can only be assumed via their respective relationships to a household head. Some modules provide additional information on spousal and child-parent relationships.
SAMPLE
How was the sample of households selected for LiK?
The original 3,000 households were drawn through stratified two-stage random sampling. The strata are formed by Bishkek city, Osh city, and the rural and urban areas of the seven oblasts, amounting to a total of 16 strata. At the first stage, a set of so-called population points (i.e. communities in rural areas, quarters in urban areas) were drawn in each stratum according to probabilities proportionate to population size. At the second stage, 25 households were drawn in each population point.
The sample selection was conducted by the National Statistical Committee (NSC) of the Kyrgyz Republic based on the 2009 Population Census data. NSC also prepared reserve samples of households, ranging from 20 percent of the sample in rural areas to 100 percent in violence-affected areas in the southern part of the country. As only 73 percent of the households from the original sample list were found and interviewed, 27 percent of households were drawn from the reserve samples.
How large was the attrition of households in the LiK sample?
8,160 individuals were interviewed in the first wave and 8,066 individuals in the second wave. Of the individuals included in the first wave, 7,364 (or 90.2 percent) were reinterviewed during the second wave. With regard to households, 3,000 households were interviewed in the first wave and 2,863 in the second wave. Of the households included in the first wave, 2,856 (or 95.2 percent) were re-interviewed during the second wave.
The third wave involved 8,177 individuals representing 2,816 households during OctoberDecember 2012. 98 percent of these households (2,765), responsible for 93 percent of respondents (7,630 people), came from the second wave. In the fourth wave of the survey, 7,681 individuals were interviewed between November 2013 and January 2014. 6,558 of these respondents were participants of LiK 2012. Out of 2,584 households that took part in the fourth wave, 2,522 households (97,6 percent) were tracked from the third wave of the project. From the original sample of 3,000 households identified in 2010, 2,450 households (81,6 percent) participated in all four waves of the project.
Have any new samples been added since the start of the survey?
No new sample has been added, but new individuals joined the survey in the following years’ as a result of changes in household compositions. New individuals who moved into an existing LiK household were surveyed and tracked, even in case of their eventual departure from the household in the following waves. Since all adult household members were to be re-interviewed individually in the LiK, all children of LiK households become part of the sample once they turn 18.
How are the data weighted?
No weights have been assigned since the sampling of households and respondents was taken proportional to population size in each of the surveyed regions.
TOPICS AND QUESTIONNAIRES
Where do I find the questionnaires?
The survey questionnaires supporting the datasets are available online at www.isdc.org/lik in three languages: Russian, Kyrgyz and English. There are four survey questionnaires for each wave:
- Control card of a household
- Household (filled out by the most informed household member)
- Individual (filled out by all adult household members aged 18 years and older)
- Community (filled out by interviewing a community administration representative)
These questionnaires, summaries of field works in English, and the survey manuals for
interviewers in Russian can be downloaded at idsc.iza.org/lik.
What are the differences in content between the LiK waves?
The survey questionnaires in each wave cover a wide range of topics on household demographics, assets, expenditure, migration, employment, agricultural markets, shocks, social networks, subjective well-being, and many others. The modules and sections in the LiK questionnaires can be divided into two categories: core and topical. The core modules, which remained largely unchanged content-wise, were asked in each wave. Examples of the core modules are household income sources and expenditures, or individual life satisfaction and security perceptions. Some core modules were asked only if there was any change, for example, in a household’s housing conditions or individual’s educational level. The second type of modules is topical. They were part of the survey in only one or two waves. These modules were mainly introduced to investigate specific topics or recent social and economic events. Examples of topical modules that were part of one or two LiK waves are parental education, reverse remittances, and expenditures on festivities. Both categories of the LiK modules underwent some changes. For example, a few sections and questions were modified or dropped because they resulted in a small number of useful observations. The table below reveals the content changes that took place throughout the course of the survey.
PANEL STRUCTURE
How do I match respondents across different waves?
The accompanying file named “mroster1013_short” allows to match individuals and households across different waves: a row represents an individual who ever has been listed as a household member (irrespective of being present or absent). The key panel identifier to track an individual is called “idpp”. It consists of the ‘panel’ household code and individual code. Corresponding to the panel identifier are the unique individual identifiers for individuals for each wave from 2010 to 2013 (named ‘idp10’, ‘idp11’, ‘idp12’, ‘idp13’, respectively). These wave-specific identifiers consist of a household code (‘hhid’) and individual’s number on the household roster (‘pid’). To create a panel, one shall create a corresponding identifier (for example, idp12 for LiK 2012) and merge the needed files using this identifier. In Stata software, the idp12 identifier-variable is created with the help of the following command: idp12=(hhid+pid/100)*100.
How can I get access to the data?
The data for all four waves is publically available. It can be obtained from the International Data Service Center (IDSC) of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) upon signing a data use agreement and used by any interested party for non-for-profit research, policy analysis and teaching purposes.
What research has been done using the LiK data?
There is a growing number of research studies done exploring aspects of migration, labor markets, gender, agriculture, and intra-household issues. Currently, the data is used by more than 60 institutions and researchers worldwide. Given the multi-topic and interdisciplinary nature of the collected data, the LiK data promises to be a comprehensive source for different types of quantitative research and policy analysis. There are no specific research-related restrictions on the use of the data. The list of published articles, papers and reports is available at idsc.iza.org/lik. This list is updated as new studies are published either as working papers or journal articles.
What opportunities are there for cross-national research using the LiK?
Given the comprehensive and multi-topic nature of the LiK data, there are plenty of opportunities for doing comparative research studies. Some of the questions and topics in the LiK questionnaires have been based on LSMS, RLMS and other similar panel data survey questionnaires.
CONTACT
Who do I contact if I have a question?
For issues related to data access, please email International Data Service Center (IDSC) at idsc@iza.org. To ask questions related to the data content, please email us at likquestion@gmail.com.