Featured Title
- Data Justice Data Justice is a cutting-edge exploration of the power relations that lay at the heart of our datafied lives. It outlines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, exploring how societies are, will, and should be affected by data-driven technology and automation. From data capitalism and data colonialism, to data harms and data activism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the injustices of life in a datafied society. It is also an urgent and impassioned call to challenge and reimagine these injustices. To work collectively to achieve a fairer and more just future.
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Data, Mapping, & Public Opinion Sources
Data Archives
- ICPSR Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new windowICPSR is the world's largest archive of computer readable social science data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
An international consortium of more than 780 academic institutions and research organizations, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is the world's largest archive of digital social science data. New to ICPSR? See: How to Use ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
- re3data.org Registry of Research Data Repositories.
- Harvard Dataverse Network Dataverse is an open source web application to share, preserve, cite, explore, and analyze research data. It facilitates making data available to others, and allows you to replicate others' work more easily. Researchers, journals, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive academic credit and web visibility.
- World Bank Data Catalog The Open Data Catalog lists all data adhering to the Open Data terms of use. This catalog lists all Open Data and other publicly available data disseminated through World Bank sites, but may have some restrictions on use.
- Data.gov Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
- ResearchDataGov ResearchDataGov is a web portal for discovering and requesting access to restricted microdata from 16 federal statistical agencies
Census / Demography
- American Community Survey (ACS) The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides vital information on a yearly basis about our nation and its people. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year. Through the ACS, we know more about jobs and occupations, educational attainment, veterans, whether people own or rent their homes, and other topics.
- Current Population Survey The Current Population Survey (CPS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most well-recognized surveys in the United States. It is immensely important, providing information on many of the things that define us as individuals and as a society – our work, our earnings, and our education. In addition to being the primary source of monthly labor force statistics, the CPS is used to collect data for a variety of other studies that keep the nation informed of the economic and social well-being of its people.
- National Equity Atlas A comprehensive resource for data to track, measure, and make the case for racial equity and inclusive prosperity in America’s regions, and states, and nationwide. The Atlas contains data on demographic change, racial and economic inclusion, and the potential economic gains from racial equity for the largest 100 cities, largest 150 regions, all 50 states, and the United States as a whole.
- IPUMS USA IPUMS USA collects, preserves and harmonizes U.S. census microdata and provides easy access to this data with enhanced documentation. Data includes decennial censuses from 1790 to 2010 and American Community Surveys (ACS) from 2000 to the present.
- IPUMS CPS IPUMS CPS harmonizes microdata from the monthly U.S. labor force survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), covering the period 1962 to the present. Data include demographic information, rich employment data, program participation and supplemental data on topics such as fertility, tobacco use, volunteer activities, voter registration, computer and internet use, food security, and more.
- IPUMS International PUMS-International is dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world. The project goals are to collect and preserve data and documentation, harmonize data, and disseminate the harmonized data free of charge.
Children and Families
- The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 The NLSY97 consists of a nationally representative sample of approximately 9,000 youths who were 12 to 16 years old as of December 31, 1996. Round 1 of the survey took place in 1997. In that round, both the eligible youth and one of that youth's parents received hour-long personal interviews. Youths continue to be interviewed on an annual basis.
- Children's Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Using information collected through various monitoring and reporting systems, the Children's Bureau analyzes and reports data on a variety of topics, including adoption, foster care, and child abuse and neglect.
- National Survey of Family Growth The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men’s and women’s health. The survey results are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others to plan health services and health education programs, and to do statistical studies of families, fertility, and health
- County-Level Marriage and Divorce Data 2010 (National Center for Family & Marriage Research, BGSU) County-level marriage and divorce counts for 2010. Not available anywhere else at this geographic level—we provide researchers with data to examine geographic concentrations of marriage and divorce for over 3,000 counties in the United States. The county-level marriage and divorce data are provided in an Excel file, which contains the county-level number of marriages, divorces, state postal abbreviations, and unique county identifiers (county-level FIPS codes) that can be easily appended
- County-Level Marriage & Divorce Data, 2000 (National Center for Family & Marriage Research, BGSU) These maps present geographic variation in the adjusted marriage and divorce rates for over 3,000 counties in the United States. The estimates are from county court record data of numbers of marriages and divorces and U.S. Census data from 2000.
- Married and Cohabiting Couples (National Center for Family & Marriage Research, BGSU) The NCFMR Married and Cohabiting Couples, 2010 Pilot Data are composed of a nationally representative sample of U.S. married and cohabiting adults aged 18-64.
- Familial Responses to Financial Instability (National Center for Family & Marriage Research, BGSU) The economic downturn in late 2008 prompted important questions about the familial consequences of economic uncertainty as well as how family environments influence coping and stress associated with financial instability (e.g., employment, income, asset accumulation, consumption patterns, public assistance usage). To address these topics, new data were urgently needed. The NCFMR aimed to fill this critical gap by sponsoring a data collection initiative on families and economic distress.
Crime
For additional sources of crime data and statistics, see the Criminal Justice Data & Statistics research guide.
- National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) archives and disseminates data on crime and justice for secondary analysis. The archive contains data from over 2,700 curated studies or statistical data series. NACJD is home to several large-scale and well known datasets, including the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and the Project on Human Development in Chicago
- The Compendium of National Juvenile Justice Datasets The Compendium of National Juvenile Justice Data Sets is an online resource for researchers that is intended as an aid to investigations of juvenile offending, victimization, and contact with the juvenile justice system. It both publicizes data sources that users may find valuable and provides information intended to help with the practical aspects of obtaining and analyzing data.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is the United States' primary source for criminal justice statistics
- Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (University of Albany) The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data about all aspects of criminal justice in the United States presented in over 600 tables from more than 100 sources. Selected data to 2013.
- School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) is the primary source of school-level data on crime and safety for the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The SSOCS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of about 3,500 public elementary and secondary schools.
Economic
For additional Economic data sources, see the Business & Economic Data Sources Research Guide.
- FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) Online database consisting of hundred of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources.
- Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) The Global Repository of Income Dynamics—GRID—is an open-access international database that provides a wealth of micro statistics on income inequality and income dynamics at the individual level. All statistics in the database have been computed from administrative records data on earnings histories from each country and harmonized for comparability.
Education
- National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
- US Schools Demographic Data This page leads to data on the racial/ethnic composition of public elementary schools in each decade beginning in most cases in 1970. It also provides measures of school segregation, which declined substantially in the 1970s nationwide but changed little since 1980. Additional information is provided about the 2010-2011 test score performance of the schools that children attended and shares of free-lunch-eligible children. Within the same district the disparities between schools attended by white and minority children are often not large, but on a metropolitan level they are severe.
- Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) is a national longitudinal study of the American higher education system. It is regarded as the most comprehensive source of information on college students.
- National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) The National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) follows a cohort of first-time freshman at selective colleges and universities through their college careers. Equal numbers of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians were sampled at each of the 28 participating schools. Among other uses, the data has been collected with the testing of several competing theories of minority underperformance in college in mind.
Health
- National Center for Health Statistics The mission of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is to provide statistical information that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the American people. As the Nation's principal health statistics agency, NCHS leads the way with accurate, relevant, and timely data.
- The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The Add Health cohort has been followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most recent in 2008, when the sample was aged 24-32. Add Health is re-interviewing cohort members in a Wave V follow-up from 2016-2018 to collect social, environmental, behavioral, and biological data with which to track the emergence of chronic disease as the cohort moves through their fourth decade of life.
- SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Office of Applied Studies SAMHSA is the lead Federal Agency for improving access to quality substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the U.S The OAS serves as SAMHSA's focal point for data collection, analysis, and dissemination of critical public health data to assist policymakers, providers, and the public in making informed decisions regarding the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders.
- National Institute of Mental Health Statistics Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year. Estimates suggest that only half of people with mental illnesses receive treatment. The information on these pages includes currently available statistics on the prevalence and treatment of mental illnesses among the U.S. population. In addition, information is provided about possible consequences of mental illnesses, such as suicide and disability.
- IPUMS Health Surveys IPUMS Health Surveys provide free individual-level survey data for research purposes from two leading sources of self-reported health and health care access information: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
- IPUMS Global Health IPUMS Global Health provides integrated international health survey data at no cost for research and educational purposes from two data series: the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) and Performance, Monitoring, and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020).
Religion
- The Association of Religion Data Archives (The ARDA) The ARDA Data Archive is a collection of surveys, polls, and other data submitted by researchers and made available online by the ARDA.
Time Use
- American Time Use Survey The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
- IPUMS Time Use These three resources provide free individual-level time use data for research purposes. The data extract systems make it easy to create data sets containing time use and other variables a user needs.
Housing
- HUD User Data Sets HUD provides researchers with access to the original data sets generated by PD&R-sponsored data collection efforts, including the American Housing Survey, median family incomes and income limits, as well as microdata from research initiatives on topics such as housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population.
- American Housing Survey The AHS is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey is the most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States.
Mapping / Visualization
- Policy Map This link opens in a new window
Easy-to-use online mapping and visualization tool. Downloadable U.S. demographic, economic and social data by city, state, zip code, county or census tract. Types of data include crime, housing, health, education and occupations, derived from both public and proprietary sources.
Public Opinion
- Roper Center Public Opinion Archives This link opens in a new window
The Roper Center is a public opinion archive that preserves the data from polls conducted by many leading survey organizations. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. The iPOLL databank offers access to nearly half a million survey questions and answers asked in the U.S. by more than 150 survey organizations. Direct links are given to study documentation and datasets.
- Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions.
- Health Poll Database (Roper Center) Heatth Poll Database is an open resource offering researchers at every level unprecedented access to questions and results from over 80 years of U.S. national polls on health-related topics. This new resource promotes an understanding of public opinion on a broad range of health issues.
- LAPOP: AmericasBarometer (Vanderbilt University) LAPOP is the premier academic institution carrying out surveys of public opinion in the Americas, with over thirty years of experience. The AmericasBarometer survey is the only scientifically rigorous comparative survey that covers 34 nations including all of North, Central, and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean.
- British Social Attitudes survey The annual British Social Attitudes survey is carried out by Britain's largest independent social research organisation, NatCen Social Research. It provides an indispensable guide to political and social issues in contemporary Britain, summarising and interpreting data from the most recent nationwide survey, as well as drawing invaluable comparisons with the findings of previous years to provide a richer picture and deeper understanding of changing British social values.
- World Values Survey The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies.
- General Social Survey, "For more than four decades, the General Social Survey (GSS) has studied the growing complexity of American society. It is the only full-probability, personal-interview survey designed to monitor changes in both social characteristics and attitudes currently being conducted in the United States."
- Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) COVID-19 Survey Archive This searchable, open-access archive houses probability-based surveys on the COVID-19 pandemic conducted in the United States and internationally
- Monmouth University Polling Institute The Monmouth University Polling Institute was established to be a leading center for the study of public opinion on critical national and state issues. The Polling Institute’s mission is to foster greater public accountability by ensuring that the public’s voice is heard in the policy discourse.
- Quinnipiac University Poll The Quinnipiac University Poll is a nationally recognized leader in public opinion research taking the pulse of American voters, on a continual basis, across the country regarding key public policy issues and elections.
- Marquette University Law School Poll The Marquette Law Poll is a public policy initiative of Marquette University Law School. Wisconsin often finds itself at the heart of American politics. The Marquette Law School Poll will be the best way to measure the heartbeat.
- National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture (NADAC) The National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture (NADAC) is a repository that facilitates research on arts and culture by acquiring data, particularly those funded by federal agencies and other organizations, and sharing those data with researchers, policymakers, people in the arts and culture field, and the general public.
