Library Guides: Terrorism: Data and Statistics

Freely Accessible Data

Global Terrorism Database
"The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2015 (with annual updates planned for the future). Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents..."

more... less...

From the University of Maryland.
Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR)
Has several sets of interest including:
-- Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946-2015
-- High Casualty Terrorist Bombings, 1989-2016
Political Instability Task Force Worldwide Atrocities Dataset
"a global dataset that describes, in quantitative terms, the deliberate killing of non-combatant civilians in the context of a wider political conflict." 1995-2016.
RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents
Includes incident data for 1968-2009
Suicide Attack Database
From the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST). Covers data from 11/1982 - 09/2018
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
A wide range of data on violence and peacemaking. From Uppsala University, Sweden. Click on the download icon on the left.

Data available to Penn State faculty and students

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
A large archive of data used by social scientist. Includes numerous data sets on terrorism and armed conflicts. Penn State users must register to download the data.

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a membership-based, non-profit data archive located at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. It serves member colleges and universities in the United States and abroad by providing: Access to the world's largest archive of computerized social science data, Training facilities for the study of quantitative social analysis techniques, Resources for social scientists using advanced computer technologies. PSU users get access to ICPSR by creating an individual account using their PSU e-mail ID. This is what identifies them as a PSU affiliate. We do not have IP access. Go to: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/index.jsp - See login at top left. Note: occasionally you will need to login using a computer on campus to validate that you are still a PSU affiliate.

Cross-national time-series data archive
Includes a Domestic Conflict Event Data set updated to 2015. Includes: Assassinations,General Strikes, Guerrilla Warfare, Major Government Crises,Purges, Riots, Revolutions, Anti-government Demonstrations

Public Opinion Data

Polling data can measure the level of concern for terrorism. Data is available for both foreign countries and the U.S. Links with the open lock are freely available to anyone.

World Values Survey
Recent surveys have questions on concern for terrorism around the world
Gallup surveys on Terrorism
A range of reports from Gallup on U.S. attitudes to terrorism including toward specific incidents.

Roper iPoll
allows you to search for polling questions across time and polling organizations

A comprehensive source for US nationwide public opinion data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, The Gallup Organization, Los Angeles Times, National Opinion Research Center, NBC News, New York Times, Princeton Survey Research Associates, the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA Today and The Washington Post. iPOLL is organized at the question-level, providing the tools to sift through 350,000 questions asked on national public opinion surveys since 1935. Penn State users may need to register using their PSU email to create a user account and password to download data. To create an account select the login tab. When you log in make sure you select Pennsylvania State University as your affiliation.

Find more resources

Statistical Insight - PSU access expires on 6/30/2021.
Indexes statistical publications from state, federal and international organizations. Includes full text, PDFs of tables, and some downloadble excel tables

Statistical Universe is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal agency government publications. It duplicates all American Statistics Index (ASI) abstract and index records (with monthly updates). In addition, it also links to 800 full-text documents published since 1994 and stored on LEXIS®-NEXIS®, and links to 2,000 publications on federal agency Web sites. The University Library owns most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. ASK for assistance locating information at any University Library Service Desk. The abstracts of all publications covered by ASI in 1996-97 include active links to agency Web sites where the full-texts can be accessed. The primary purpose of these links is to supplement the coverage of Statistical Universe as its full-text coverage expands. The links also enable users to explore an agency's Web site.