Library Guides: Sociology: Data & Statistics

Starting Points

This section contains a mix of raw and tabular data sources covering a range of geographies and time periods.

ProQuest Statistical Insight
Starting point for background data.

Covers data from U.S. federal and state governments, universities, private associations and organizations, independent research groups, as well as international and intergovernmental organizations.
Formerly from LexisNexis

Data.gov
Good starting point for raw data

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The home of the U.S. Government’s open data. Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.

ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
Good starting point for raw data.

ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and includes many large time-series datasets. International in scope.
Human Development Reports

UN data on key social, economic, and governmental metrics.
World DataBank
Contains over 500 timeseries indicators under the headings: world view, environment, economy, states and markets and global links.

Includes the World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance databases. Contains over 500 timeseries indicators under the headings: world view, environment, economy, states and markets and global links. Data are at the country level only and are updated annually. Includes the World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance databases.
OECD.Stat
Covers only OECD members and selected other countries.

Brings together most of the statistical databases in SourceOECD, allowing quick searching in one place.
Historical Statistics of the United States

Compilation of over 37,000 statistical series from over 1,000 sources. All tables include citations to data sources and descriptions of data anomalies. Each major section includes a signed essay that puts the statistics in historical context.

Spatial Data Resources
Finding Spatial Data in the Library and other resources.

United States Census

Social Explorer
Census data from 1790 to present.

Social Explorer is a detailed reference tool for current and historical Census data from 1790 to 2010. Data may be generated by browsing maps or building reports.

Guide to Census Data
Additional detailed information on the Economic Census.

American FactFinder
Census Bureau interface.

Search data collected by the US Bureau of Census on housing, population, business and government.

Foreign Censuses

Many foreign censuses are available through the Library Catalog, using subject searches as shown here. Not all years or countries may be held in our libraries or even available. Please contact me if you have questions about accessing specific census material.

Turkey -- Census
Argentina -- Population -- Statistics
Urban population -- Japan -- Statistics

Chicago/Cook County Data

Smart Chicago
City of Chicago Data Portal
Cook County Data Portal
Metropulse
Includes Community Data Snapshots. This area of the CMAP website contains a set of data that summarize demographics, housing, employment, transportation habits, retail sales, property values, and land use in metropolitan Chicago's 284 municipalities and also for all 77 Chicago Community Areas.

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Census data selection and visualization tool from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

See our Chicago Research Library Guide for more data sources

More Sources for Large Data Sets

Harvard Dataverse
The 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. Researchers, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive appropriate credit.

UChicago users can create an account using their CNetID. Choose "Insitutional Account" on the Log In page.

Sociology

Starting Points

United States Census

Foreign Censuses

Chicago/Cook County Data

More Sources for Large Data Sets

See Also