Library Guides: Public Administration: Statistics and Data

Tools for locating data

Sage Data (formerly Data Planet)
Data includes a wide range of social, economic and demographic data both from the US and international sources.
Data Citation Index
research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world

Google Dataset Search
Google's search engine for datasets.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
The world's largest archive of computerized social science data

U.S. Data

The Libraries provide access to many sources of data and statistics. Here are a few starting points.

Historical Statistics of the United States
statistics from over 1,000 sources recording every aspect of the history of the United States

Data.gov
The Home of the U.S. Government's Open Data
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.

Congress and Elections

CQ Voting and Elections Collection
Expert analysis, demographics, and data of elections-realted information.
CQ Congress Collection
historical analysis of members of Congress, their legislative voting behavior, interest groups, and their interactions in crafting public policy.

Census Data

Census Data (was American FactFinder)
provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas. It contains data from a broad range of surveys and censuses from the United States.
Census Bureau website
The Census Bureau does much more than the decennial population census. Explore their website for a wide range of data.

SimplyAnalytics
Limited to 3 concurrent users. SimplyAnalytics enables users to quickly create professional quality thematic maps and reports using extensive demographic data (ie. census, consumer expenditure data) including data from D&B, the County Business Patterns Survey (CBP), EASI/MRI, and Claritas PRIZM . SimplyAnlytics turns complex data into valuable information that is easily accessed through an innovative and user-friendly interface. Data is available at the State, Congressional District, County, City, ZIP Code, Census Tract and Block Group level.

Special Access
Limited to 3 concurrent users.

International Data and Statistics

A few key resources with international data to get you started.

CountryData Online
political, economic, financial, and social data for over 140 countries
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Full-text book and serial publications from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

OECD Better Life Index
Measures quality of life in countries around the world over numerous indicators.
World Databank
A wide range of country level data from the World Bank
IMF Data
Economic and financial data from the International Monetary Fund

UN Comtrade
commodity trade data for all available countries and areas since 1962

Special Access
To get access you will need to register with your Penn State access ID email (only an example: abc12@psu.edu). You can also register for unlimited batch, bulk, and API downloads. Getting access to API downloads requires a second registration for an access key. More information can be found in the UNComtrade user guide.

IPUMS International
Census microdata from around the world
International Database (by U.S. Census Bureau)
Demographic measures for populations around the world.
Eurostat
Main portal for European Union Statistics

Polls and Polling

Health Poll Database
data from surveys of public opinion back to the 1930s
Roper iPoll
US nationwide public opinion data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations

Special Access
Access: 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.

Afrobarometer
National public attitude surveys on democracy and governance in Africa
Arab Barometer
Provides insight into the social, political, and economic attitudes and values of ordinary citizens across the Arab world.
Asian Barometer
You will need to apply for access to most of the data.
Eurasia Barometer
Monitors political, social and economic transformations in the countries of post-communist Europe and post-Soviet Eurasia in the opinion of their populations.
Eurobarometer (by the European Commission)
Web site of the Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission.
European Social Survey
Measures the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty nations.
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Surveys of public opinion in the Americas.

Latinobarómetro
annual public opinion survey that involves interviews in 18 Latin American countries,

Pew Research Center
Non-partisan research center that tracks both domestic and international public opinion
Odum Institute Data Archive
A broad range of public opinion data including the Harris Poll. Particularly good for state level polls.
National Annenberg Election Survey
Examines a wide range of political attitudes about candidates, issues and the traits Americans want in a president. You must apply for access to the data sets.
World Values Survey
- Access to tables and graphs showing national or comparative survey results for selected countries to the waves of the World Values Survey, conducted 1981-2015

Political data

In addition to the more general data sources above, there are some data sets that focus primarily on topic such as politics, political institutions, and conflict. Here are a few places to start.

Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR)
Data from Center for Systemic Peace includes Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2014.
Comparative Agendas Project
Track policy outcomes across countries
SIPRI Databases
Correlates of War Project

Data Discovery and Reuse

Need help finding data, cleaning data, merging data, or citing data sources? Contact the University Libraries Data Discovery and Reuse team. To learn more or schedule a consultation, visit their website.

Public Administration

Tools for locating data

U.S. Data

Special Access

International Data and Statistics

Special Access

Polls and Polling

Special Access

Political data

Data Discovery and Reuse