- Afrobarometers--The Afrobarometers are
an ongoing series of surveys conducted amongst countries in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on topics
such as civil society, government, and state-society relations. The Electronic Data Center has most
of the Afrobarometers available here.
- American National
Election Studies (NES)--The NES series is one of the premier sources
for data on voting behavior and poltical attitudes in the post-WWII United States. Upon registering (which is
free), users can download data and SAS/SPSS/Stata program files and documentation for any of the
various NES
studies. The SDA
Archive at UC-Berkeley also allows users to access recent
versions of the NES and extract particular variables from
them for those who have specific questions in which they are
interested.
- Association of Religion Data Archives
(ARDA)--The ARDA is an excellent site for numerous surveys
on issues of religion. There are many downloadable datasets
and codebooks. Researchers should go to the "Data Archive" for
a directory of the different studies available.
- "Bowling Alone: Data"--This site hosts
data used by Professor Robert Putnam in his Bowling Alone study
of "social capital" in the United States. The data cover topics such as civic engagement, trust in others and in
social institutions, etc. Additional relevant data for the study of social capital are available
via the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America and
via the
Roper Center.
- CPANDA Data Archive--The
Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data
Archive (CPANDA) at Princeton University allows users
to download studies in its collection of data on matters pertaining to cultural policy and the
arts.
-
Eurobarometers--The European Union has been conducting
Eurobarometers surveys with the European public since the
early 1970's. The surveys meaure
attitudes toward economic, political, and social issues
within EU member-states. The Data Center has an extensive
collection of Eurobarometers, including studies conducted in
Central and Eastern
European countries. The Central Archive for Empirical Social Research also has a
search
engine for Eurobarometer codebooks and questionnaires that is very useful for identifying
the topical contents of individual studies.
- European Social Survey (ESS)--To
quote the website, the ESS is "designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing
institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations." The
data are available for both on-line analysis
and direct download into SAS, SPSS, or Stata.
- General Social Survey (GSS)--The GSS measures
public opinion in the United States on a wide variety of topics of interest to social scientists. The survey, which
began in the early 1970's, provides a (nearly) annual perspective on American attitudes toward government, life,
race, religion, and other social issues. The link here is to the GSS homepage within the National Opinion
Research Center. Sites where researchers
can extract and download specific variables of interest are listed here. The
SDA Archive at Berkeley also holds GSS data
from 1972 to 2006.
- International Index of Public Opinion--A consortium
of polling agencies compiles this yearbook every year. It
contains questions on a large number of topics from opinion
polls and surveys across a large number of countries. Unfortunately,
this reference is not available online. However, it is available in Woodruff
Reference (HM261. I5532).
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- International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)--The
ISSP is an ongoing series of cross-national surveys focusing on social attitudes towards issues such as
gender roles, national identity, and the role of government. The Electronic Data Center has most of
the ISSP datasets and codebooks available here.
- JARS
(U.S. Officials Job Approval Ratings)--The U.S. Officials
Job Approval Ratings page is run by Thad Beyle at UNC-Chapel
Hill and contains a wealth of time-series data on job approval
ratings for U.S. presidents, senators, and state governors.
- Latinobarómetro Data--The Latinobarómetro is an
annual survey conducted amongst 18 countries in Latin America. The survey, which has been conducted since 1995,
asks respondents about topics such as globalization, democratic governance and political institutions, "social
capital," the environment, and gender issues. The Data Center has microdata files for this survey from 1995
through 2005.
-
"Metro Voices, Metro Choices" Data and Documentation--
The "Metro Voices, Metro Choices" initiative
sponsored a survey of the general public and of various community figures/leaders in the Metro
Atlanta area in the spring of 2005 and asked them about various quality of life issues within the city.
-
National Election Pool (NEP) 2004 Exit Polls--National Election Pool exit polls are available
through the ICPSR, the
Roper Center, and Emory's Electronic
Data Center. The link above provides access to the (even more controversial) election results
provided by the NEP for the 2004 election.
- Odum Institute Data
Archive--The Odum Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill has a large
catalog of holdings for polling, including surveys from Louis Harris &
Associates. Their
Public Opinion
Poll Question Database allows users to search through the texts of questions for more
refined queries.
- Pew Research Center for the People and
the Press--
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press is a major center for the study of public
opinion and regularly
conducts polls (both at home and abroad) about various social and political topics and contemporary
issues. They make many of their studies available for download
here. Many of the more recent
datafiles are in SPSS format. Users are required to register
before downloading a dataset, but registration is free. Users should also check out the resources
available via the Pew Research Center
homepage.
- Polling
the Nations--This website allows you to search a large
database of surveys and opinion polls primarily in the United
States, but also in European Union countries as well as in
several other countries.
- The Roper
Center--The Roper Center is one of premier polling-data archives in the country.
Its holdings cover a wide range of topics. The iPOLL search page may be of particular use because it allows users to search at
the question level. Roper is also
accessible via Databases at Emory.
- Voter News Service (VNS)
2000 Exit Polls--Voter News Service exit polls are available through the
ICPSR, the
Roper Center, and Emory's Electronic
Data Center. The link above provides access to the (highly controversial) election results provided
by the VNS for the 2000 election.
- World Value Survey (WVS)--The WVS
is a widely-cited series of international surveys conducted in a wide range of countries on a number
of social, political, and economic attitudes. The Electronic Data Center has all
four "waves" of the WVS available here.
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