The combination of survey data with administrative records (named “record linkage” in the following) is a promising innovation within social surveys. SHARE aims at integrating country specific record linkage projects to expand the survey data and its research potential.

The first country which implemented record linkage was Germany, where the SHARE-RV project links German SHARE data to the records of the German Pension Insurance. Starting with a pilot of SHARE-RV in the third wave of SHARE, the project is still being continued as an integral part of the survey (see SHARE-RV).

After the success of the German record linkage project this approach was scaled up to other SHARE countries.

REGLINK-SHAREDK is the second successful linkage project in SHARE and relates to the Danish subsample of SHARE. The linkage in Denmark was completed in February 2017 by establishing the project as a national research infrastructure and is still being continued by providing data updates (see REGLINK-SHAREDK).

The third linkage project in SHARE is the Dutch record linkage, which links SHARE survey data from the Netherlands to administrative records of the Dutch national statistical office, Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This project currently comprises survey data from waves 1 to 6. Data is available for research projects since 2019 (see Linkage SHARE NL).

The REGLINK-SHAREFI project provides Finnish SHARE survey data linked to administrative data from Statistics Finland, the Finnish Center for Pensions and Kela. The linked data has been available for researchers since 2024 and will be updated for future SHARE Waves (see REGLINK-SHAREFI).

Information on other national implementation of the record linkage projects will follow as soon as these are fully established.