Empirical Legal Research: Data Sources & Repositories
A collection of electronically-available data and statistics on a wide variety of legal and law-related topics, including U.S. and global economics, law enforcement and criminal justice, litigation, bankruptcy, finance, and more.
Social Explorer is a detailed reference tool for current and historical Census data from 1790 to the present. Data may be generated by browsing maps or building reports.
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.
Social data for Chicago neighborhoods mostly compiled and computed from decennial census data. Find in the Library: - 1930 - 1940 - 1950 - 1960 - 1970 & 1980 - 1990
Summarizes demographics, housing, employment, transportation habits, retail sales, property values, and land use in metropolitan Chicago's 284 municipalities and 77 Community Areas. Raw data can be downloaded from the CMAP Data Hub.
The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS-USA) consists of samples of the American population drawn from federal censuses and from the American Community Surveys of 2000-2012. These samples, which draw on every surviving census from 1850-2000, and the 2000-2012 ACS samples, collectively constitute our richest source of quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population.
IPUMS is not a collection of compiled statistics; it is composed of microdata. Each record is a person, with all characteristics numerically coded. In most samples persons are organized into households, making it possible to study the characteristics of people in the context of their families or other co-residents. Because the data are individuals and not tables, researchers must use a statistical package to analyze the millions of records in the database. A data extraction system enables users to select only the samples and variables they require.
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.
Social Explorer is a detailed reference tool for current and historical Census data from 1790 to the present. Data may be generated by browsing maps or building reports.
The NHGIS specifically provides spatially aggregated census data: data summarizing individuals within particular areas, such as states or counties, where the "individuals" might be persons, housing units, farms, libraries, newspapers or any other features that were at some point counted in a U.S. census. No individual-level records, with or without personally identifiable information, are included anywhere in the NHGIS.
The U.S. Geological Survey's TIGER/line files constitute a digital base map of the entire United States. These files include spatial data for such geographic features as roads, railroads, waterways, and political and census boundaries (e.g., boundaries of tracts and block groups). find in the Library