Statistics, Data, & Mapping - Sociology - Research Guide

Penn Library Contacts

For assistance with SPSS, Stata, R, and other statistical software, schedule a consultation with our statistical software consultants.

Statistical Software Guide

For assistance with GIS software, contact our mapping & geospatial data librarian, Girmaye Misgna.

Mapping & GIS Guide

For additional assistance in locating datasets, contact Lauris Olson.

Also see Penn Libraries Public Computing and Virtual Computer Lab (vLab) guides for software availability

Statistics & Data Archives

Data.census.gov (aka Explore Census Data)
The US Census Bureau's primary delivery platform - a free data site - for the American Community Survey, the most recent Decennial Census, and other Census Bureau data releases.
Proquest Statistical Insight
Identifies statistical tables in U.S. government publications from 1973, state and private sources from 1980, and international organizations from 1983 (Microfiche reproductions also available)
Statista: Statistics Portal
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
Data-Planet Statistical Ready Reference
Provides simple and refined searching of the extensive Data-Planet repository of standardized and structured U.S. and international statistical data
Historical Statistics of the United States (ebook)
Includes over 37,000 data series from over 1000 sources
US Statistical Abstract Series
Statistical information compiled by the US Census Bureau (past volumes). Refer to ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. for current volumes
ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
Current version of America's factbook
Social Explorer
Census maps and reports, 1790-2010, with tract-level population, education, income and housing data from 1940 onward.
PolicyMap
Generate statistical reports focused on communities, health, rental housing, HMDA, and home sales.

Philadelphia Statistics Penn Library Guide
Recommended links for exploring and locating Philadelphia data
Philadelphia Vital Statistics Reports
Contains comprehensive data about the vital events of births, deaths and fetal deaths (i.e. still-births) occurring to Philadelphia residents.
Pennsylvania Department of Education: Data, Reporting, & Statistics
Pennsylvania-related data about attendance, graduation rates, schools and school districts, student progress, transportation, and other information.
Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation Statistics
Statistics related to driving safety in Pennsylvania
(Use site search to seek stats: crash facts; highway; school bus; driver; motor vehicle; etc)
Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information & Analysis
Provides workforce and economic statistics for the state of Pennsylvania
PA Department of Health EDDIE
The Enterprise Data Dissemination Informatics Exchange (EDDIE) is an interactive health statistics dissemination web tool with datasets

CDC: National Center for Health Statistics
Look up national health data provided by the Center for Disease Control and also visit CDC Wonder (https://wonder.cdc.gov/)
Kids COUNT Data Center
A valuable source of data on children and families
World Health Organization: Health Data & Statistics
Seek out international health data
National Center for Education Statistics
Review national education survey data and also visit NCES Datalab ( https://nces.ed.gov/datalab/index.aspx ) to visualize and explore NCES data
Philadelphia Vital Statistics Reports
Contains comprehensive data about the vital events of births, deaths and fetal deaths (i.e. still-births) occurring to Philadelphia residents.
RAINN: Sexual Assault Statistics
Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network statistical visualizations and tables

U.S Political Stats
A data download and visualization tool covering all three branches of the United States government
The Association of Religion Data Archives : ARDA
Explore religious data collected by the ARDA
World Bank Open Data
Seek out global development data. Also see World Bank's Microdata Catalog
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Data supplied by the Department of Labor on topics such as inflation, employment, etc
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics supplied by BJS

Public Opinion Polls

These are databases of questions asked in public opinion polls.

iPOLL @ Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Questions from U.S. nationwide polls, 1935-present. Includes many Gallup polls. Links out to RoperEXPRESS to download microdata for individual polls and to RoperExplorer to create on-the-fly crosstabulations.
Gallup Analytics
Provides access to nearly a century of U.S. data and a decade of global tracking data from the Gallup World Poll.
Polling the Nations
Contains polls taken on a variety of subjects all over the world

Analysis Tools

PRE-LOADED DATA & ANALYSIS

NCES DataLab
NCES data visualization and exploration tool
Homelessness Analytics Initiative (HIA)
Provides users with access to national, state, and local information about homelessness
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A collaboration between the US Dept of Veterans Affairs & the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development
Google Public Data Tool
Access to public datasets with visualization tools that allow users to chart and map data

Locate Datasets

DATASET COLLECTIONS (NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL DATA)

ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research)
Social science data sets from academic and government organizations. ICPSR offers thematic collections, including Integrated Fertility Survey Series, and Data Sharing for Demographic Research. HINT! Look for the "analyze online" filter ... but remember that you'll be creating tables directly from microdata.
Sociometrics: Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences Library
Search for social, behavioral, and health related datasets
Data.gov
Search through over 300,000 datasets provided by the US government and use their online tools for data projects. (Open Data)
IPUMS (Integrated Public use Microdata Service)
Provides census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. (Requires Registration)
Social Explorer
Easy to access maps and tables from 1790-2010 census, plus American Community Survey through 2015. Downloadable in Excel, CSV, SPSS, SAS, and Stata file formats.
UK Data Service
UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data resources
Data-Planet Statistical Datasets
Provides access to statistical time-series data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations.
MPIDR databases / Max Planck Institute for Demographic Reserach
Databases include : Human Mortaility Database, Human Life-Table Database, Human Fertility Database, Human Cause-of-Death Database, COVerAGE-DB (harmonized COVID-19 cases and deaths), and more. (Registration required)
Demographic & Health Surveys Program - Datasets
All DHS datasets are free to download and use. To download datasets, you must complete a short registration form. (Supported by USAID)
Odum Institute (Dataverse)
National public opinion datasets and datasets from North Carolina and other states. Hosted by UNC Chapel Hill.
Henry A. Murray Research Archive (Harvard Dataverse)
Repository for quantitative and qualitative research data at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science

REGIONAL DATASETS

OpenDataPhilly
A catalog of open data in the Philadelphia region.
Community Health Database / Public Health Management Corporation
Use of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey (SEPA HHS), as well as through tailored tabulation and analysis of other population-level datasets, such as Pennsylvania Vital Statistics and the US Census
PA Department of Health EDDIE
The Enterprise Data Dissemination Informatics Exchange (EDDIE) is an interactive health statistics dissemination web tool with datasets

IMPORTANT SINGLE DATASETS

General Social Survey
Gathers data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes.
National Crime Victimization Survey / US Bureau of Justice Statistics
Seek out national crime and justice data from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
National Longitudinal Surveys: NLSY etc
A set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women.
Add Health - The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
A longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year.
"Bowling Alone" - Roper Social and Political Trends Data, 1973-1994 [USRoper1994-Trends]
This dataset seeks to explore the state of social capital in the United States
Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD)
US Census Bureau's LEHD program produces new, cost effective, public-use information combining federal, state and Census Bureau data on employers and employees

Social Mapping + Visualization Tools

PolicyMap
Use various data layers and data points to find trends in certain parts of the country.
Social Explorer
Easy to access maps and tables from 1790-2010 census, plus American Community Survey through 2015. Downloadable in Excel, CSV, SPSS, SAS, and Stata file formats.
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Want more help? See this guide- See this guide (https://socialexplorer.libguides.com/socialexplorer/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sharpspring&sslid=MzOxMDAxNDAwNjA0BAA&sseid=MzI0NzAxMLEwMwcA&jobid=e7f42146-b8cc-4738-919c-82f8ad062bea)
Data Equity Tools / U.S. Census Bureau
Includes:
• Opportunity Atlas.
• My Community Explorer.
• Community Resilience Estimates Equity Supplement.
• Household Pulse Survey.
• Census Business Builder.
• Response Outreach Area Mapper.
• Local Employment Dynamics.
... and more.
SimplyAnalytics
Mapping tool that incorporates demographic, business, health, and marketing data.

PolicyMap & Social Explorer allow users to upload/ plot out additional GIS data into maps.

*Also see ArcGIS Story Maps for mapping out social data