Need data for a thesis, dissertation, course project, or grant proposal? The resources highlighted on this page will enable you to find raw data to analyze for your project.
The General Social Survey (GSS) "takes the pulse of America" on a vast number of topics, with national-level data collected beginning in 1972 to present. A great resource for any discipline!
To identify variables for the entire dataset and/or specific years:
Options for Analyzing GSS Data:
Use SDA to analyze data online analysis with no need for downloading or special software:
Download data for analysis in statistical software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, Stata, R):
The ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) database has over 10,500 datasets available spanning various social science disciplines and topics. The datasets in ICPSR are primarily quantitative, but it also includes some qualitative datasets.
ACCESSING ICPSR DATA: Check out this page for all the ins and outs of accessing ICPSR data and downloading datasets.
SEARCHING TIPS: You can keyword search for datasets, but browsing by topics, series, or thematic data collections is sometimes more efficient. For about 76% of their datasets, they also have variable-level/question-level search capabilities.
HELP RESOURCES: Check out some of ICPSR's YouTube videos for searching tips.
The Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) Department offers support for data analysis tools & methods, mapping & data visualization, finding existing data & statistics, data collection, and data management
Visit this page for more information about our services, and browse our calendar for workshop listings.