GSU Library Research Guides: *Statistics and Data: Finding Raw Data

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Research Data Services @ Georgia State University Library

The Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) Team 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.

Data Services & Sociology Librarian

Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh

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Subjects:Data Services, Sociology

Education Datasets

School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS)
he School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS) provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for school attendance areas, or school catchment areas, for selected areas in the United States for the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Seeks to advance and expand social and behavioral research by providing training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community as well a a data archive social science research.

Religion Datasets

Association of Religion Data Archives

International Datasets

International Data Resource Center (IDRC)
In an effort to meet the growing demands for international data, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has created the International Data Resource Center (IDRC). The IDRC acts as a clearinghouse for international data housed at ICPSR.
UN Data
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has launched a new internet-based data service for the global user community. It brings UN statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single entry point from which users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN System.
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life. The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents.

Economic Datasets

Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC)
Located at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC) seeks to provide qualified researchers in Atlanta, and around the Southeast, with the opportunity to perform statistical analysis on non-public Census microdata.
World Bank Open Data
The World Bank's Open Data initiative is intended to provide all users with access to World Bank data, according to the Open Data Terms of Use.

Media Datasets

Dataset Download | Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press offers free access (with registration) to its data archive. Datasets are currently available dating back to January 1997.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Seeks to advance and expand social and behavioral research by providing training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community as well a a data archive social science research.

New York Times Linked Open Data
"For the last 150 years, The New York Times has maintained one of the most authoritative news vocabularies ever developed. In 2009, we began to publish this vocabulary as linked open data."

Criminal Justice Datasets

National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
NACJD facilitates research in criminal justice and criminology through the preservation, enhancement, and sharing of computerized data resources.

More Dataset Repositories

Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE)
DataONE is a collaboration among many partner organizations, and is funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under a Cooperative Agreement.
List of Data Repositories for "Open Data"
This is a list of repositories and databases for open data.
Re3Data.org
Registry of Research Data Repositories

Data and Statistics - The Difference

What's the difference between 'Data' and 'Statistics'?

Data is the raw numbers/materials collected that represent a measurement or variable; it is unorganized and unprocessed.

F = 1, FREQ = 17957; M = 2, FREQ = 11747; NR = 3, FREQ = 198

Statistics are generated from data by processing, organizing, analyzing, interpreting, and representing the data in a meaningful context.

The GSU enrollment by sex for the Spring 2011 semester is 17,957 (60.05%) females, and 11,747 (39.28%) males, with 198 (.66%) not reporting.

ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) - Database of Datasets

Searching for datasets? ICPSR is the best place to start!

The ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) database has over 9,000 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.

SEARCHING TIPS: You can keyword search for datasets, but using the browsing options 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.

GSS ~ U.S. Sociological and Attitudinal Trend Data, 1972 - 2014

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:

Browse the entire GSS codebook (downloads the 3,000+ pages PDF), or
Search/browse variables with SDA 4.0 - for help using SDA 4.0, check out these SDA 4.0 video tutorials.

To do data online analysis with no need for downloading or special software:

Use the SDA 4.0 online analysis tool - for help using SDA 4.0, check out these SDA 4.0 video tutorials.
Also check out the "Quick Tables" options.

To download data for analysis in statistical software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, Stata, R):

You can also download the entire dataset, pre-constructed subsets, or create customized subsets of the data using SDA 4.0 - for help using SDA 4.0, check out these SDA 4.0 video tutorials.

Don't like the SDA 4.0 interface for exploring the GSS? Try out the GSS Data Explorer and its help resources.

Need assistance? Ask Mandy, Data Services Librarian (aswygarthobaugh@gsu.edu)

* 1972 - 2014 data available for analysis as of 4/6/2016.

Data Citation Index

Data Citation Index
Discover research data, including data studies, data sets from a wide range of international data repositories and connect them with the scientific literature to track data citation.

Demographic Datasets

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Seeks to advance and expand social and behavioral research by providing training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community as well a a data archive social science research.
AmericasBarometer
ATLANTA CAMPUS ONLY. A scientifically rigorous comparative survey that measures values, behaviors, and socio-economic conditions in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults. Note: Please accept the user agreement to access the database.

American Community Survey (ACS)
This initiative of the Census Bureau helps local officials, community leaders and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. It is the premier source for detailed information about the American people and workforce.
Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC)
Located at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC) seeks to provide qualified researchers in Atlanta, and around the Southeast, with the opportunity to perform statistical analysis on non-public Census microdata.
Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR)
DSDR provides resources to demographic data producers and users, including confidentiality and disclosure review, restricted data contract development and data dissemination, a searchable index of important demography and population study data, and a catalogue of publications using data indexed.
IPUMS
The MPC is one of the world's leading developers of demographic data resources. We provide population data to thousands of researchers, policymakers, teachers, and students. All MPC data are available free over the internet.
National Longitudinal Surveys
Sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a family of surveys dedicated to tracking the labor market and other life experiences of American men and women.

The seven NLS cohorts are: (1) National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97); (2) National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79); (3) NLSY79 Child and Young Adult; (4) Older Men; (5) Mature Women; (6) Young Men; and (7) Young Women
PH Partners - Demographic Data
PH Partners is a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries.

Health and Science Datasets

Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC)
Located at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Atlanta Research Data Center (ARDC) seeks to provide qualified researchers in Atlanta, and around the Southeast, with the opportunity to perform statistical analysis on non-public Census microdata.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the nation's premier system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services.
BioLINCC
The mission of BioLINCC is to facilitate access to, and maximize the scientific value of, the Biorepository and Data Repository and promote the availability and use of other NHLBI funded population-based biospecimen and data resources.
CDC National Center for Health Statistics
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is a rich source of data for researchers, teachers, and students who want to perform data analysis. This page compiles key sources of information found on the NCHS website for those who are interested in analysis of NCHS data as well as documentation and methodology of NCHS data systems.
CDC Wonder
Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research - Access statistical research data published by CDC, as well as reference materials, reports and guidelines on health-related topics.
County Health Rankings
The annual County Health Rankings measure vital health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income, and teen births in nearly every county in America.
Data Citation Index
Discover research data, including data studies, data sets from a wide range of international data repositories and connect them with the scientific literature to track data citation.
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program
Data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, gender, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and nutrition. The DHS Program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Framingham Heart StudyFriends of the FHS | Consent Forms | Directory of Investigators
Investigators seeking FHS data that is not available through dbGaP or BioLINCC or seeking biological specimens may submit a proposal through the FHS web-based research application.
Global Health Observatory Data Repository
The Global Health Observatory is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for more than 1000 indicators for its 194 Member States.
Health and Medical Care Archive
HMCA preserves and disseminates data collected by research projects funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans.
Health Data from Data.gov
Over 2000 health-related data sets available.
Health Services and Sciences Research Resources (HSRR)
Database of research datasets, instruments, and software in the areas of health services research, behavioral and social sciences, and public health.
Healthy People 2020
From the CDC Wonder system.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Seeks to advance and expand social and behavioral research by providing training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community as well a a data archive social science research.
Roper iPoll
Provides U.S. public opinion poll data through a full-text retrieval system organized at the question level. Note: GSU users can access the download data sets, many of which are available in SPSS format.
iPoll is now Roper iPoll. You must create a new account in order to access the new Roper iPoll.
Polling the Nations
This is a critically acclaimed online database of public opinion polls containing the full text of more than 700,000 questions and responses from more than 18,000 surveys and 1,700 polling organizations, conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and more than 100 other countries around the world.

Integrated Health Interview Series
Harmonized data and documentation for the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) - annual data from the 1960s to the present.
Law Atlas, Policy Surveillance Portal
LawAtlas is the central, authoritative place for systematically collecting, measuring and displaying laws
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)
The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population, conducted by the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) through a contract with NORC at the University of Chicago
National Cancer Institute - SEER
A program of the National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
A program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States.
National Health Interview Survey
The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and is one of the major data collection programs of the National Center for Health Statistics which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
National Immunization Surveys
National immunization surveys are conducted annually and used to obtain national, state, and selected local area estimates of vaccination coverage rates for U.S. children age 19-35 months and for U.S. adolescents age 13-17 years.
National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR)
NICOR (National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research) is part of the National Centre for Cardiovascular Preventions and Outcomes, which sits within the Institute of Cardiovascular Science at University College London.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Data and Statistics Gateway
Provides centralized access to NIOSH public-use research datasets.
Open Payments Data CMS
"Open Payments is the federally run transparency program that collects information about financial relationships between physicians, hospitals and health care manufacturing companies."
UNICEF Customized Statistical Tables
WISQARSTM (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System)
An interactive, online database that provides fatal and nonfatal injury, violent death, and cost of injury data from a variety of trusted sources. From the CDC.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
The YRBSS includes national, state, territorial, tribal government, and local school-based surveys of representative samples of 9th through 12th grade students.