Recently, some users have been found to purchase and copy CFPS data directly from others in order to be convenient. We are firmly resisting for this! In addition, without obtaining data through formal channels, we will not be able to receive notifications of our updated data and academic events, nor will we be able to enjoy the data services we provide. More importantly, for the CFPS project, only accurate user statistics will be continuously obtained. With the results data, we can provide you with quality and free data resources for a long time!

In fact, it is no trouble to obtain CFPS data through formal channels. We provide a variety of channels for everyone. If you fill in the real personal information according to the prompts on the page, you will generally be able to review and pass the data normally.

 

User Registration

Users who have not registered with the CFPS official website data platform, please go to the CFPS official website (www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps), click “Data Download” in the “Quick Navigation” on the right side of the homepage to enter the registration interface. .

For users with ID cards in mainland China, please register the Chinese data platform account directly on the Chinese page. For users who do not have a Chinese ID card, please click on “English Version” in the upper right corner of the page to switch to the English page to register the English data platform. The Chinese data platform and the English data platform are independent of each other, but users are only required to select one platform to register their accounts, and do not repeat registration on both platforms.

In the Chinese data platform registration interface as shown in the figure, A is the off-campus user path that holds the ID card of the mainland China. Please fill in the e-mail address with the suffix of edu, org, gov, etc. If you do not have an institutional email with the appropriate suffix or if you have any other questions, please send an email to isss.cfps@pku.edu.cn. B in the figure is the user registration channel in Beijing University with ID card of mainland China. Users in Peking University without Chinese ID card must also click on “English Version” in the upper right corner of the page to switch to English page to register English data platform account.

Because the Chinese data platform and the English data platform are independent of each other, the user account can only be used for login on the data platform registered by itself, and cannot be used for cross-platform login.

 

Registration Requirements

When filling out the registration information, please pay attention to the following points:

1. When registering the Chinese data platform account, you must select the ID card for the ID type and fill in your ID card number in the ID number field. When registering an English data platform account, please select Passport in the Type of ID field and fill in the passport number in the ID Number field.

2. Please fill in other email addresses and mobile phone numbers. When you are unable to communicate with your institution's mailbox due to mail server settings or network problems, the project team can still get in touch with you through other mailboxes and mobile numbers.

3. Please fill in the name of the instructor (junior grade undergraduate students, if you have not yet assigned a tutor, please fill in none).

4. For graduated users, please select “Bachelor”, “Master” or “Ph.D.” in the academic qualification column; for undergraduate or postdoctoral scholars, please select “undergraduate”, “master”, “doctoral” or “postdoctoral”.

5. When filling out the phone number, please bring the area code. If there is no office, please fill in the office number of your department.

 

After filling out and submitting the registration form, the organization email address you filled in when you registered will receive a reminder email automatically sent by the system titled “Registration Successful” with your username and initial password.

If you have not received the "Successful Registration" email, you may have incorrectly filled in the email address you registered or your organization's mail server rejected the email. In this case, please use the email address of the institution you filled in at the time of registration to send an email to iss.cfps@pku.edu.cn to provide feedback.

Users who have received the "Successful Registration" alert email, please be patient and wait for the project team to review. After the review is completed, the agency email address you filled in when you registered will receive a notification email about the results of the audit.

 

Data Download

Once the registration is complete and approved, you can log in to your registered data platform and download the CFPS data as shown above.

The CFPS project team started the national baseline survey in 2010, and then conducted a full sample follow-up survey every two years. Up to now, a total of four rounds of nationally representative survey data such as CFPS2010, CFPS2012, CFPS2014, and CFPS2016 have been collected.

As shown in the table below, each round of survey data includes a family relationship database, a family questionnaire database, an adult questionnaire database, and a child questionnaire database. In addition, CFPS2010 and CFPS2014 also include a community questionnaire database, and CFPS2012, CFPS2014, and CFPS2016 also include the cross year id database.

 

Years     Database	National baseline survey  in 2010	First round of national panel survey in 2012	Second round of national panel survey in 2014	Third round of national panel survey in 2016
Community questionnaire database	√		√
Family relationship database	√	√	√	√
Family questionnaire database	√	√	√	√
Adult questionnaire database	√	√	√	√
Child questionnaire database	√	√	√	√
Cross year id database		√	√	√

 

In addition, there are test survey data (CFPS2008, CFPS2009) and special CFPS2011 survey data on the data platform. In order to maintain the 2010 sample and to conduct pre-surveys prior to the first round of tracking in 2012, the CFPS project team visited some of the 2010 baseline surveys in 2011.

 

Data Usage Guide

CFPS is a comprehensive and very large survey, and new users often face thousands of variables in the database and are at a loss. Here, the solution given by the project team is to calm down and invest a certain amount of time and energy, carefully read the questionnaires on the CFPS official website, user manuals, related technical reports, codebooks, and WeChat public number history push messages. If you do not read the relevant auxiliary documents, but directly from the database to select variables based on the label for research, there is a great probability that the data will be used incorrectly! Only through in-depth study and a true understanding of CFPS can we avoid erroneous research results!

 

Common Questions of Data Application

Q: I applied for CFPS data. I received an email reminding me that my registration was successful. Why can't I download CFPS data?

A: The registration success and the approval pass are two concepts. After the registration is successful, the user's application will enter the background audit, and the data can be downloaded after the audit is passed.

 

Q: I am a student at school, but I don't have an email with edu, org, and gov suffixes. How should I apply?

A: You can send us an email with your photo and a scanned copy of your student ID card. We will process it according to the actual situation.

 

Q: I am a Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan resident/international student. I don't have an ID number. How do I apply?

A: You can apply for registration on the English data platform.

 

Q: I registered in the Chinese data platform, but can't log in to the English data platform?

A: At present, the Chinese data platform and the English data platform are independent of each other. To put it bluntly, which platform you are registered with, you must log in to the corresponding registration platform.

 

Q: I have seen data on 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 on the Internet. When will the data for 2013 and 2015 be released?

A: CFPS2008 and 2009 are pre-survey data. CFPS2010, CFPS2012, CFPS2014, and CFPS2016 are nationally representative survey data that are conducted every two years. CFPS2011 is special maintenance survey data, so there is no survey data for 2013 and 2015. .

 

Q: Why does the downloaded Stata data open garbled?

A: Some users have Stata data to open garbled. It is normal to use the Stata13 version after testing. It is recommended that users with garbled characters try to open Stata13.

 

Q: There are a variety of questionnaires in the questionnaire, such as self-answer, pickup, face-to-face, and tele-visit. Why are there some variables in the database that are not picked up and interviewed?

A: The data released by CFPS has been cleaned up. We will consider the variable names of the same questions in the questionnaires of self-answer, pickup, televised and face-to-face interviews. Generally, the variable names of face-to-face interviews will be preferred.

 

Q: Why is the official website of China Family Tracking Survey that Baidu searched out cannot be opened?

A: The second result of Baidu's search is the official website of the project team, but the link given by Baidu is the old URL that has expired. It is recommended to use the Bing search engine. The first item in the search results is the official website of the project team! Or you can manually enter the official website address of the project group directly in the browser address bar: www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps

 

Cooperation and Expectation

1. Share the research results based on CFPS to us in time;

2. Do not explore the addresses and personal information in the data;

3. Investigate the suspected points found during the use of the data in time;

4. Do not directly provide CFPS data to others.