The Living Conditions Surveys (ULF) and Level of Living Surveys (LNU) are two longitudinal social sciences surveys conducted in Sweden for more than three decades. The respondents in both ULF and LNU, a random sample of the Swedish population, are asked questions about living conditions, i.e. health, education, working conditions, leisure time, and family and social relations. This article focuses on the latter area: family and social relations. The purpose of this article is twofold: First, to analyse the theoretical basis and hypothesis of the questions explored in the study. Second, through a meta-analysis of six research studies based on ULF and LNU, to examine what kind of analyses and interpretations have been done. The article illustrates how the surveys and studies based on data neglect changes due to family life and the texture of social networks. Besides limitations in the questionnaire design used to investigate reciprocity and durability, there is a lack of uniform concepts to capture the diversity between structure and qualitative aspects of social relationships.