November 2025 release (ELSST Version 6)

Work in this development phase of ELSST has focused on updating the DEMOGRAPHY hierarchy and related terms, in consultation with international demography experts. Changes include additional terms to improve coverage of vital statistics (such as births, marriages, cohabitation, civil partnerships and deaths) and updated definitions for existing terms.

Members of ELSST presented recent developments in the thesaurus, including collaborations and translation issues, at the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST) 2025 conference in May 2025. They are available on Zenodo at The European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST): Keeping it Fair and Translating ELSST into Slovenian: Challenges in supporting Open Science and Fair Principles.

All language versions have been updated except for Romanian, Swedish and Icelandic where no new translations have been added to this release. Translation of Preferred Terms for all target languages is between 96 – 100% complete.

The following changes were made to the English source language version:

35 new concepts
3 deprecated concepts
12 relabelled Preferred Terms
59 new Entry Terms
10 deleted Entry Terms
80 new or changed Definitions
21 new or changed Scope Notes
53 changes to the Broader/Narrower Concepts
55 changes to Related Concepts
51 new or changed History Notes

Examples

New concepts include the following: MULTIGENERATIONAL HOUSEHOLDS, PARTNERS (PERSONAL), UNDERPOPULATION, NET MIGRATION, IRREGULAR MIGRATION, FOOD INSECURITY, and UNINTENDED PREGNANCY
Deprecated concepts are as follows: HOUSEHOLDERS, DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICS (replaced by VITAL STATISTICS) and MORBIDITY (replaced by ILL HEALTH)
Relabelled Preferred Terms include the following: NUMBER OF BIRTHS instead of NATALITY; NUMBER OF DEATHS instead of MORTALITY, and NUMBER OF MARRIAGES instead of NUPTIALITY
New Entry Terms include FLATSHARING as Entry Term for HOME SHARING; FOOD POVERTY as Entry Term for FOOD INSECURITY and UNPLANNED PREGNANCY as Entry Term for UNINTENDED PREGNANCY
Deleted Entry Terms: include PARTNERS (PERSONAL) as Entry Term for SPOUSES and CHILD REARING as Entry Term for CHILD CARE
New or changed Definitions include the addition of a Definition to the term SEPARATED (PERSONS WHO ARE CURRENTLY MARRIED OR IN A CIVIL PARTNERSHIP, BUT WHO NO LONGER CONSIDER THEMSELVES TO BE A COUPLE. THEY MAY EITHER LIVE SEPARATELY OR LEAD SEPARATE LIVES WITHIN THE SAME HOUSEHOLD. SEPARATION MAY BE BY MUTUAL AGREEMENT OR BY JUDICIAL DECREE.) and the change of the Definition of EDUCATIONAL MIGRATION (from MIGRATION FOR PURPOSES OF TERTIARY EDUCATION to THE MOVEMENT OF INDIVIDUALS, TYPICALLY STUDENTS, ACROSS REGIONAL OR NATIONAL BORDERS TO PURSUE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES)
Broader/Narrower Concept changes include the change of the Broader Concept of FOOD BANKS from CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS to FOOD AID (DOMESTIC) and the Broader Concept of HOME SHARING from HOUSING to HOUSEHOLDS