This release (Version 6) includes an extensive revision of the demographic hierarchy and related terms. The aim is to ensure that the thesaurus accurately reflects contemporary society and aligns with ELSST’sobjectives on diversity and inclusivity.
The updates were developed in consultation with international demography experts and include revised definitions of existing terms as well as new terms to improve coverage of vital statistics (such as births, marriages, cohabitation, registered partnerships, and deaths).
All language versions of the thesaurus have been reviewed, with the exception of Romanian, Swedish, and Icelandic, for which no new translations were added in this release. The translation of preferred termsin all other languages is now between 96% and 100% complete. DANS has contributed to the Dutch translations since the inception of ELSST.
Further information about this update can be found in the ELSST Version 6 Release Notes.
Finding Relevant Data Sources and Enriching Metadata
Since 2024, ELSST has been linked to the CESSDA Data Catalogue, which contains descriptions of more than 40,000 data collections from CESSDA Service Providers across over 20 European countries, including those provided by DANS. This integration makes it easier for researchers and data professionals to find relevant datasets, regardless of language or origin.
Click here to access the ELSST.
ELSST can also be used to enrich metadata within the DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and the ODISSEI Portal. These Dutch data infrastructures align with international standards, providing substantial added value. Because the thesaurus terms are translated, users of the data station and the portal can search for concepts in multiple languages. For example, a search for “verkiezingen” in the Data Station SSH or ODISSEI Portal will return results containing the keywords “elections”. This allows users to find datasets described in English using Dutch search terms.
About ELSST
ELSST is owned and published by the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) and its national Service Providers. The thesaurus contains more than 3,300 concepts covering the core disciplines of the social sciences: politics, sociology, economics, education, law, criminology, demography, health, employment, information and communication technology, and environmental science.
ELSST is available in fifteen languages (Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish) and is used for data discovery within CESSDA, facilitating access to data sources across Europe—independent of domain, origin, language, or vocabulary.
