China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) is a nationally representative, annual longitudinal survey of Chinese communities, families, and individuals launched in 2010 by the Institute of Social Science Survey (ISSS) of Peking University, China. The CFPS is designed to collect individual-, family-, and community-level longitudinal data in contemporary China. The studies focus on the economic, as well as the non-economic, wellbeing of the Chinese population, with a wealth of information covering such topics as economic activities, education outcomes, family dynamics and relationships, migration, and health. The CFPS is funded by the Chinese government through Peking University. The CFPS promises to provide to the academic community the most comprehensive and highest-quality survey data on contemporary China. Three key features of the CFPS are worth noting here:

1.All members over age 9 in a sampled household are interviewed. These individuals constitute core members of the CFPS.

2.As in the PSID, children of the CFPS are also considered core members of the CFPS. Theoretically, a core member can leave the study only through death.

3. Follow-up of all core members of the CFPS is designed to take place on a yearly basis. Five provinces are chosen for initial oversampling (1600 families in each) so that regional comparisons can be made. The remainder of the CFPS sample (8000 families) is drawn from the other provinces so as to make the overall CFPS sample representative of the country through weighting (except for remote areas, noted later).

The sample for the 2010 CFPS baseline survey through a multi-stage probability is drawn with implicit stratification. It is designed to be multi-stage so as both to reduce the operational cost of the survey and to allow for studies of social contexts. Each subsample in the CFPS study is drawn through three stages: county (or equivalent), then village (or equivalent), then household.

Interviews will be conducted using computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technology, provided by the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Michigan. The CAPI and its associated survey-management system enables the researchers to design a fairly complex interview schedule tailored to each member of the household and reduces measurement error while at the same time allowing the management team at the ISSS to closely monitor the quality of the interviews in the field.

In the 2010 baseline survey, the CFPS successfully interviewed almost 15,000 families and almost 30,000 individuals within these families, for an approximately response rate of 79%. The CFPS respondents are tracked through annual follow-up surveys.