Currently, data is available from 1990 forward for all persons aged 16 or older who were registered in the population in Sweden on 31 December each year. As from 2010, data on persons aged 15 years is also available.

In LISA, the individual is the primary unit, but it is possible to link to a number of additional units, such as:

• Family
• Local unit (November)
• Enterprise (November)
• Local unit (largest source of gainful employment)
• Enterprise (largest source of gainful employment)

The units “local unit” and enterprise include tables with a variety of different variables, such as economic accounting. All tables or units and years are linked via identities (that are replaced by serial numbers before release).

Health insurance and parental insurance data is retrieved from the Income and Taxation Register (IoT), and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. As from 1994, data is retrieved directly from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.

The variables in the Income and Taxation Register are well-suited for the study of income situations, while the variables in the Swedish Social Insurance Agency are best suited for study of illness and family situations.

The LISA database is updated yearly. The registers on individuals are completed around 16 months after the time of measurement, while the registers on enterprises and local units take about 18 months to complete.

Variables

Most variables in the administrative registers apply a whole year as a measurement period, using the population on 31 December. Variables that indicate employment use the month of November as a measurement period, while the highest level of education completed refers to the spring term and study attendance refers to the autumn term.

The variable content in LISA is grouped mainly by:

• Demographics
• Education and training
• Employment and unemployment
• Income and social insurance
• Family
• Local unit and enterprise

Area of application

The purpose of LISA is to enable a new type of analyses and evaluations in the ill-health area and simple data extraction for studies in the labour market area. In LISA, “soft” data from questionnaire surveys can be jointly processed with register data.

The LISA database is a supplement to traditional labour market statistics and, together with these statistics, it can provide an enhanced description of the labour market and people’s relationship to working life. The snapshots that cross-sectional data in other labour market statistics normally provide can be supplemented with more complex “annual pictures”. In addition, it is possible to follow individuals longitudinally with regard to, for example “annual pictures”.

Besides the many variables already available in LISA, data can be linked from external surveys and other registers, such as the dynamics of enterprises and local units register (FAD).