The Gateway to Global Aging Data is a research platform designed to support longitudinal and cross-country studies on aging, health, and retirement. It integrates data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and its International Network of Studies (HRS-INS) across 47 countries. As of 2024, the Gateway has indexed metadata from 17 surveys in 44 countries and harmonized 59,116 variables. Since 2022, the Gateway has expanded its work on policy data, through the development of the Policy Explorer, a tool that enables comparisons of macro-level contextual data. This tool has gathered data on five types of retirement policies for fifteen countries. Additionally, it has compiled information on four types of long-term care policies. The Gateway includes also education policies within the HRS-INS and HCAP networks, by documenting changes in compulsory schooling laws and integrating them into the Policy Explorer. It includes policies since 1900 for 22 countries. The Gateway also initiated policy collection for educational tracking. This data is already being used in studies exploring the relationship between education and late-life cognitive outcomes in several countries.
The Education Policy Supplement continues to expand the scope of contextual data collection, integrating information about education policies through the end of the original grant period. A growing body of research suggests that education significantly impacts late-life cognition, with early findings indicating that disparities in education and childhood environments contribute to cognitive inequalities in old age. However, little cross-country research has systematically examined the connection between specific education policies and cognitive development. Through this initiative, the Gateway aims to bridge this gap by collecting and documenting new dimensions of schooling policies that may explain variations in educational achievement and early childhood development. Studying these policies is crucial because they are a key driver of differences in educational outcomes, which can be used to investigate causal mechanisms linking education and cognitive function. Policies also shape inequalities in education access and quality, and analyzing them can help policymakers design better interventions to address cognitive disparities.
Moving forward, the Gateway will continue data collection on education policies using the same rigorous methodology applied in its earlier work on retirement and long-term care policies. The project aims to produce harmonized education policy measures, comprehensive policy documentation, and open-access data that will be disseminated through multiple channels. These resources will enable researchers to better understand how education policies contribute to disparities in late-life cognition and will support future studies that seek to improve education and aging-related policies worldwide.