- American Time Use Survey (ATUS)--
The ATUS, which is hosted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "measures the amount of time people
spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, commuting, and
socializing" (to quote the homepage). The site contains data and reports for the 2003-2005
iterations of the ATUS and links to sites for time-use studies in different countries. Earlier
time-use surveys for the U.S. are available via the
ICPSR.
- Association of Religion Data Archives
(ARDA)--The ARDA is an excellent site for numerous studies
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.
- CIA World
Factbook--Excellent source of general data on
all countries in the world. There are data on numerous subjects
including demographics, social/political indicators, and geography.
-
Citizenship and Immigration Services--The U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services (formerly the INS) publishes the
Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, which users can
access at this site.
-
Comparative Welfare States Data Set (CWSDS)--The CWSDS is a joint effort by comparative
welfare-state scholars such as Evelyne Huber, Charles Ragin, John D. Stephens, and Duane Swank. The
data cover 18 OECD countries from 1960 onwards and include many economic, political, and policy
variables.
- 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.
- Current Population Survey--This is a joint project
between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS is a monthly survey that collects basic
socio-demographic information and labor force characteristics, along with various supplemental studies on matters
such as voter registration, internet usage, etc. To access CPS data files, users
can go through the Data
Ferrett (see below). Alternately, they can go to the National Bureau of Economic Research's CPS site
here or to the IPUMS CPS site here.
- Data
Ferrett--Data Ferrett is ideal for extracting
a relatively small number of variables from a dataset or creating
your own cross tabs or frequencies. Data Ferrett contains data
from various Current
Population Surveys, income studies, and health surveys.
Alternately, users can use the DataFerrett application that
is available on workstations in the Data Center.
- Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)--
The DHS is a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development to promote
better gathering of survey data on health issues pertaining to family life and reproductive health
in developing countries. Note that registration and application are required to access survey data files.
- EDStats - the World Bank
Education Statistics Database--EDStats contains an extensive range of international data
pertaining to education, both in tables and databases. The Data Query System may be of particular interest because it allows users to access downloadable
time-series data.
- Foreign Labor Statistics--This
site hosted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics allows for
international comparisons of unemployment, labor force characteristics,
wages, etc.
- GenderStats
- the Database of Gender Statistics--GenderStats is a database with international/comparative
data on the status of women and includes topics such as poverty, demographics,
health, and political participation. The Data Query Systems may be particularly helpful and has an interface similar
to that of the World Development Indicators (see right).
- 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.
- Global Education Database--
The United States Agency for International Development's Global Education Database (GED) allows
users to search for international education statistics. Users can search for specific variables
and/or countries and save data in Excel files.
- Global Market Information Database
(GMID)--GMID is produced by Euromonitor International and contains time-series data (1977-present)
on a very wide range of economic and social indicators such as income, GDP, consumer expenditures, and
population demographics. The data are available through both Excel-ready spreadsheets and .pdf
reports. GMID is also accessible via Databases at Emory.
- Health,
Nutrition, and Population Statistics (HNPStats)--HNPStats
is a World Bank site with much international/comparative time-series
data on health indicators, as well as on various economic
and demographic/population measures. The interface is very similar to that of the World
Development Indicators.
- Henry A. Murray Research
Center--The Murray Center contains
numerous datasets in the social sciences. Data in the subjects
of psychology, sociology and education are highly represented.
- HIV/AIDS Surveillance
Data Base--The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database contains data on estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence and is, to quote
the website, "a compilation of information from those studies appearing in the medical and
scientific literature, presented at international conferences, and appearing in the press."
- Integrated
Public Use Microdata Series-- A database hosted at the
University of Minnesota that is an excellent source for historical
U.S. Census data from 1850 to 2000. The database also hosts
a growing collection of microdata census files from foreign
countries that can be accessed at https://international.ipums.org/international/.
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- International
Archive of Education Data --This archive,
hosted by the ICPSR at the University of Michigan is sponsored
by the National
Center for Education Statistics. The archive contains
numerous longitudinal and comparative studies on varies topics
of interest to researchers and policymakers in education.
Issues of interest include funding, rates of matriculation/graduation,
teacher/administration quality, personnel, etc.
- The International
Data Base--The International Data Base (IDB) contains statistical tables of demographic, and
socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the world.
- International Labour Organization--The
ILO is the main international labor-rights advocacy group
in the world and has brought together a variety of information
about labor rights and working conditions internationally.
You can access their databases directly at
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/dblist.htm.
- National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)
--The National Longitudinal Surveys series contain data on the labor-market experiences
and "significant life events" of several different co-horts of men and women. The data,
documentation, and an extraction program are available for downloading. Be aware that some
of the variables in the surveys require approval from the BLS for access. The ICPSR also has
some NLS surveys available here.
- National
Science Foundation Division of Science Resource Statistics
(SRS)--This site contains much detailed data about advanced education in the sciences and about members
of the labor force with advanced degrees in the sciences. The SRS databases are accessible
here.
The appendices to the NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators publication accessible
here and the compilation of
"Detailed Statistical Tables" available here may also be of interest.
- National Survey of Family Growth
(NSFG)--The NSFG is an on-going survey series focusing
on matters of family history and reproductive history (e.g. marital history, childbirth, usage of
contraceptives) as well as more general matters such as employment history and demographics. The
latest wave of the NSFG is also available on CD-ROM in the Data Center. Older waves are also
available via the Social Science Electronic Data Library (see below).
- National Survey of Families and
Households (NSFH)--The NSFH contains data on topics such as "the respondent's family living
arrangements in childhood,
departures and returns to the parental home, and histories of marriage, cohabitation, education,
fertility, and employment," to quote the website. There are three waves for the NSFH - 1987-1988,
1992-1994, and 2001-2003. Data are available as SPSS files. Some
NSFH data are also available via the Social Science Electronic Data Library (see below).
- 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.
- PovertyNet - Data on Poverty
--PovertyNet is a World Bank site with many resources relevant for research on poverty, including links to
several international/comparative datasets on the topic. Be warned that addresses to World Bank sites
often change without notice.
- 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.
- Social
Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL)--The Social Science
Electronic Data Library is an archive of over 300 datasets
covering a variety of topic areas such as Adolescent Pregnancy, Aging,
AIDS/STD's, the American Family, Disability in the US, and Maternal
Drug Abuse. The archive is well-indexed and allows variable-level
searches. Some of the studies are also available on CD's in the Data Center. The SSEDL is also
accessible via Databases at
Emory.
-
State of the Cities Data System (SOCDS)--The Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) has produced SOCDS to provide quick access to
tabular data for social, demographic, and economic variables at different geographic levels. HUD
has also compiled and organized a collection of
datasets produced by
or in association with its Office of Policy Development and Research.
- State Politics and Policy
Quarterly Data Sources--This site has time-series data for the American states on basic economic,
political, and social information. Depending on the variable, the data coverage is from 1975 to 2001.
The data are also available at a mirror site here.
- Statistical Abstract of the
United States--Electronic version
of the popular resource. The Statistical Abstract contains a
wealth of information on numerous socio-economic and demographic
indicators for the US. Historical data tables taken from the Statistical Abstract are
available here.
There is also a CD version of the Statistical Abstract available in the Data Center.
- UNESCO
Institute for Statistics--The United Nations Education,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides, to quote the website,
"[global] and internationally comparable statistics on education,
science, technology, culture, and communication." Users can download
tables directly into Microsoft Excel.
- UN Human Development
Reports (HDR)--The HDR is an annual report from the United Nations that scores
and rank countries on various indicators of "development" broadly defined. Data tables from the HDR
are available as .pdf files and, for the most recent report, in Excel. Data from some earlier reports are
available via Carleton University's
Country Indicators for Foreign Policy site.
- University of Texas Inequality
Project (UTIP)--The UTIP is devoted to the study and measure of income and earnings inequality
throughout the globe. Their data
holdings consist of several datasets measuring inequality between and within countries.
- World
Bank World Development Indicators (WDI)--The WDI provides convenient access to
over 800 indicators on over 200 countries. Data are, in theory,
available from 1960 forward. The WDI is also accessible via
Databases at Emory and on CD-ROM
in the EDC.
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