Library Research Guides: SOC/AMST 225: Life in the Big City: Data

Data Tools!

Data Planet lets you search for and visualize socioeconomic, business, demographic, and all other kinds of data!

Use Social Explorer to look at demographic information (e.g. census, economic, election data etc.) in a visually useful way.

State Stats offers easy-to-use social & demographic data for all 50 U.S. states for the past 15 years. Data can be mapped, graphed or exported to Excel.

More about Data!

Statistics Guide
Use this guide to find pre-defined or summary data.
Data Guide
Use this guide to find raw data.

Polling Data

Roper iPOLL
Searchable collection of 500,000 questions and answers from surveys collected by the major polling firms in the U.S. since 1935, with downloadable datasets.
Polling the Nations
Compilation of hundreds of thousands of public opinion survey questions and responses, at the local, state, national, or international level, 1986 to present.

The Gallup Organization
Opinion polls & trends.

Government Resources

Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
American FactFinder
Your source for population, housing, economic, and geographic information.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
To collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.
Data.gov
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
NCES-National Center for Education Statistics
This is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
American Community Survey
Find statistics on education, income and benefits, health insurance, and more.

Other Statistic Databases

ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Archive of downloadable datasets that can be used with statistical software packages.

GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office
The U.S Government Printing Office (GPO) provides publishing and dissemination services for the official and authentic government publications to Congress, Federal agencies, Federal depository libraries, and the American public.

Historical Statistics of the United States
U.S. statistics (mostly at the national level) from over a thousand sources, with downloadable tables in .csv and .xls formats and the ability to create customized tables and spreadsheets.

Your Librarian

Daria Hafner

Email Me

Contact:

Clapp Library 218A

781-283-3602

Subjects:Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Sociology

Citing Data

The general rule for citing data is to stick with the style for citing a journal article. Definitely include the creator, title, year of publication, publisher (usually the archive in which it is found), edition or version, and access information (e.g. a URL).

The idea is to give credit to the author or producer of the data, and give information to allow others to find the data you found.

Examples: Both Social Explorer (here) and American Fact Finder (here) give some examples of how to cite reports and maps generated on their platforms.