LibGuides: History: Finding data and statistics

Public Opinion Polls

U.S. Public Opinion

Harris polls, 1958-
More than 1,000 Harris polls from as early as 1958 are archived. Respondent groups range from national cross-section samples to such special populations as Vietnam veterans, Hispanics, teenagers, and the elderly. The surveys also cover a diverse range of topics, such as aging, environmental issues, leisure and the arts, business, foreign affairs, presidential ratings, health care, attitudes toward government, and crime. Many questions have been repeated over time, allowing researchers to track changes in opinions and attitudes.

Statista
Good for: Finding statistical data.
Contains: Statistical data from various sources.

Statista includes data on more than 85,000 topics from 18,000 sources. About 20 percent of the total data in Statista comes from sources available free online, such as the World Bank and the U.S. Census, but the data also includes numerous exclusive sources which include industry, marketing, and trade groups. Much of the data is related to marketing, demographic, government and industry information, and is international in scope. Data can be downloaded in JPG, PowerPoint and Excel.

World Public Opinion

American Public Opinion Data microfiche
Polls from the 1980s. Accompanied by the American Public Opinion Index.

Mass Observation Online
Good for: Learning about the everyday lives of ordinary British people who participated in social science research.
Contains: Personal diaries, surveys, questionnaires, photos, and printed research analysis.
Dates covered: 1937-1960.

Data Visualization guide
Tools for graphical representation of information and data, including collections of texts

Social Explorer
Good for: Accessing current and historical U.S. census data and demographic information.
Contains: Census data and demographic information visualized on a map.

The easy-to-use web interface lets users create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change. In addition to being a comprehensive data resource, Social Explorer also offers features and tools to meet the needs of both demography experts and novices. It creates reports at all geographic levels including the state, county, census tract, block group, zip code and census place. Included are over 18,000 maps, hundreds of profile reports, 40 billion data elements, 335,000 variables and 220 years of data.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Good for: Finding data on population, work and welfare, and international relations in the United States.
Contains: Statistical tables and historical analysis.
Dates covered: 1775-2000.

A source for quantitative indicators of American history, this database of almost 2000 tables covers nearly every quantifiable dimension in American history, including population, work and welfare, and international relations from the earliest times to the present. Chapters are preceded by essays that introduce the quantitative history of their subject, provide a guide to the sources, and offer expert advice on the reliability of the data and the limits that might be placed on their interpretation.

Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD)
The Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD) is an online repository of datasets compiled by historians of early North America. MEAD preserves and makes available these datasets in their original format and as comma-separated-value files (.csv). Each body of data is also accompanied by a codebook.
Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search has indexed almost 25 million datasets, giving you a single place to search for datasets and find links to where the data is.
Google Public Data Explorer
The Google Public Data Explorer makes large, public-interest datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.

IPUMS
Population microdata, including household or individual level data from historical U.S. decennial censuses.
IPUMS abacus
Beta test of tool to make a quick crosstabulation of two variables on datasets from the 20th century censuses and American Community Survey.

Seshat
Databank of social, political, and economic data
D-Place
Database of places, language, culture and environment
CHIA
Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis (CHIA, formed 2011) links academic and research institutions in North America and Europe—with ties to institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CHIA’s key contributions are data linkage (for data analysis in general) and a global archive (to permit historical analysis on a global scale).
World-Historical Dataverse
Publicly available datasets compiled by the University of Pittsburgh Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis
CLIO-Infra
Clio Infra has set up a number of interconnected databases containing worldwide data on social, economic, and institutional indicators for the past five centuries, with special attention to the past 200 years. These indicators allow research into long-term development of worldwide economic growth and inequality.
Economic History Association data series online
EH.Net provides an on-line location for researchers in economic history to make their data series available to other professionals and interested scholars. Several data series have been given to EH.Net and are available as downloadable files, while many other titles may be accessed through our Database Directory.

Constellate
Easy to use text mining tools with content from JSTOR
Voyant
User friendly tool lets you visually represent texts with word clouds or graphs