Population-Level Administrative Data: A Resource to Advance Psychological Science

Population-level administrative data-data on individuals' interactions with administrative systems, such as healthcare, social-welfare, criminal-justice, and education systems-are a fruitful resource for research into behavior, development, and wellbeing. However, administrative data are underutilized in psychological science. Here, we review advantages of population-level administrative data for psychological research, with examples of advances in psychological theory arising from administrative-data studies. We focus on advantages in three areas: (1) How population-level administrative data are collected and recorded, (2) the data's large scale, and (3) unique data-linkages. We also describe ethical issues as well as methodological considerations and limitations in population administrative-data research, and future directions to enable psychological scientists to more fully capitalize on administrative-data resources.