Guides: Social Policy & Practice: Statistics, Data, and Mapping

Statistics, Data, and Mapping

Locate Datasets

National and International Datasets

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)
ResearchDataGov
ResearchDataGov.org (RDG) is a portal for discovering and requesting access to restricted microdata from all federal statistical agencies, including the National Center for Health Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, and others. RDG is hosted by ICPSR on behalf of the federal government. After encountering a dataset of interest, researchers who click on "Request Access" will be prompted to sign into their ICPSR MyData account as an option.
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.
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
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study
A longitudinal study which is "the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States."

Statistics and 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
Pennsylvania LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment
"Funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment is a biannual survey conducted to evaluate health needs, health disparities, and barriers to care impacting LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians. The PA LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment collects data on healthcare experiences, nutrition, exercise, tobacco use, drug and alcohol use, sexual health, mental health, and food and housing security."

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

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
Sage Data
Includes tables and interactive visualizations from a number of datasets. Sage Data absorbed data from the former CQ Press product "US Political Stats." Relevant datasets for U.S. policy include, among others:
-- CQ Voting and Elections Collection
-- US House Elections
-- US Presidential Elections
-- US Senate Elections
-- United States Election Results
-- Voting and Registration

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

Social Mapping

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)
Opportunity Atlas
The Opportunity Atlas is an initial release of social mobility data, the result of a collaboration between researchers at the Census Bureau, Harvard University, and Brown University.
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

Analysis Tools

DataFerrett
Use this tool to analyze US Census data **(Use Internet Explorer or ESR version of Mozilla Firefox)
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Datasets included: the American Community Survey; Current Population Survey; Decennial Census; Survey of Income and Program Participation; Geography Data; American Housing Survey; Behavioral Risk-Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); Consumer Expenditure Survey; County Business Patterns; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey; National Center for Health Statistics; National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; National Health Interview Survey; National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey; National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation; New York City Housing and vacancy Survey ; Public Libraries Survey; Small Area Health Insurance Estimates for Counties and States; Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates for School Districts, Counties, and States; Social Security Administration; Survey of Program Dynamics
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

Regional Data Centers

Philadelphia Federal Statistical Research Data Center
Enables Penn researchers to work with restricted-access versions of numerous important datasets in the federal statistical system
Pennsylvania State Data Center
Serves as Pennsylvania's official source of population and economic statistics

Finding Censored or Defunct Web Pages and Data

Trying to locate government-produced health websites and health-related datasets that have been suppressed through government action can be frustrating. You know the web page or dataset existed, but you cannot find it. After you have found bad links elsewhere on this library guide, here are some suggestions for finding these older web pages and the datasets and grey literature that are linked from them.

Suppressed Websites (and Old Versions of Websites, too)

When a government administration changes - through elections, coup, or other disaster - government websites can change too. Web pages may vanish, sometimes replaced by new web pages. Web page URLs may stay the same, but the page content may be very different before and after an administration's turnover. Documents, spreadsheets, and other files linked from old web pages may be lost from the government record.

Wayback Machine / Internet Archive
A digital archive of the web, providing archived web pages starting in 1996. Websites are crawled for archiving. The archived versions of websites may not include a website's deepest tiers, and web pages with interactive content may not have working archived versions. The Wayback Machine includes Archive-It's public collections.
Archive-It.org / Internet Archive
Related to the Wayback Machine, this program offers support for institutions wishing to archive their own websites or a topical collection of websites. Archive-It may be easier to browse among organizations than the Wayback Machine, which works best by searching for a URL. Archive-It hosts the Federal Depository Library Program Web Archive / US Government Publishing Office.
The End-of-Term Web Archive
A partnership among the Internet Archive, academic institutions, and others (in early years, including US federal agencies) to archive a snapshot of US federal websites dating from before the end of a US Presidential administration.
Congressional & Federal Government Web Harvests / US National Archives & Recodes Administration
Collections with Web Archives / Library of Congress
Individual special collections of archived websites. While very well served for foreign elections, collections include a Coronavirus archive, and archives of US federal government and US state government websites.

Search Tips for Finding Old Websites

Paste a website URL you know into the Wayback Machine's search box. In the results, look for the blue or green colored archive events. (Blue links directly to an archived version. Green-color link to redirected URLs.).
If your initial website URL does not produce many old results, search for a parent website URL and drill down through the archived parent website. For example, Philadelphia's Division of Housing and Community Development is a new city agency, renamed and reorganized from the preceding Office of Housing and Community Development. To find the archived OHCD website, search the Wayback Machine for archived versions of https://www.phila.gov/, the City Government's website and then browse the list of city agencies : here are very different examples of archived OHCD websites, from November 14, 2018, from March 31, 2014, and from August, 4, 2004.

Data Archives

These website generally archive static datasets that might require statistical software for analysis.

ICPSR Data Lumos
Requires PennKey login. The principal crowd-sourced repository for datasets produced by the US federal government.
Public Environmental Data Project
This website has archived versions of Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) environmental justice datasets and data visualizations.
Larger and Established Data and Website Efforts /Data Rescue Project
This web page lists projects like Data Lumos that are archiving US federal government datasets.

Penn Libraries Data Contacts

For assistance with statistical software support, contact our student consultants (note: assistance may be limited in Summer):

Online Scheduler

For GIS support- contact our library experts at LibraryGIS@pobox.upenn.edu, or submit a GIS consultation request.

Mapping & GIS Guide

An additional librarian contact for locating datasets is Lauris Olson, olson@upenn.edu

Also see Penn Libraries Computer Lab Guide for software availability