Library & Cultural Services: Sociology: Data. Statistics. Social Surveys

Portals & Repositories

Google Dataset Search is an easy to use site that covers millions of datasets across the social sciences, including Economics. Note that it includes subscription datasets as well as free ones. Check the library website to see if we have access to subscription datasets (ask me if unsure).

Our World in Data is much more selective, but a useful site for some topics, notably because it includes essays which provide context and background information about data for various research areas.

Other portals that can be useful:

DataPortals.org lists nearly 600 open data portals around the world

Gesis Data Search cross-searches portals and repositories for social science data

Harvard Dataverse well-known repository of datasets

ICPSR leading US-based data repository

Re3data global registry of research data repositories, all subject areas

Many countries have a national data archive (such as UK Data Archive in the UK), and a list of some major ones is provided here

General

The resources listed below are fairly general in nature. Use the topic tabs under More Resources to locate specialised sources of data.

Finding appropriate sources of data and statistics is not always easy. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please do get in touch.

CeLSIUS
Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support at UCL. Access to the ONS Longitudinal Study data set, comprising linked census and event records for 1% of the population of England and Wales. Data from census returns since 1971, including occupation, economic activity, housing, ethnicity, age, sex, marital status, and education. Also event data on vital statistics, migration, and cancer registrations.
CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives)
Brings together datasets from various European data archives
Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem
Access to open Earth observation data from the EUs Copernicus Sentinel satellites. Data has been used by researchers needing spatial and temporal data across many fields, e.g. war & conflict; environment; forced migration & refugees

Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive
Provides annual data from 1815 onward (where available) for all countries. Nearly 200 demographic, political, legislative, economic and social science variables available in Excel format. CNTS is useful for broad cross-country comparisons requiring long time series data.

Data.gov.uk
Official gateway to around 5000 publicly available government & public sector data sets. Archived datasets are available from the National Archives through its National Digital Archive of Datasets (1997-2010), superseded by the UK Government Web Archive (2010-).
Google Trends
Find out what people are searching for on Google. Provides charts showing breakdown by city, region and language. Useful for tracing the impact of a news story.

Mintel Academic
Mintel Academic gives access to consumer and market intelligence reports and data. The Library subscribes to the following sections: Mintel Trends, Mintel Market Sizes, UK Food Service, UK Leisure, UK Travel, UK Lifestyles, UK Media, and UK Retail Overview.
Institutional login

Missing Numbers
Interesting website highlighting gaps in UK government data collection
Office for National Statistics
UK body for official statistics. See especially the People, Population & Community theme.

Passport
The Global Market Information Database (GMID) is a online business information resource providing intelligence on industries, countries and consumers, combining global expertise with local insight from analysts around the world.
Institutional login
Statista
Statista aggregates data from lots of different sources & is a great place to find statistics on a very wide range of topics, including advertising, consumer goods, environment, internet, celebrities, social life, media, retail, crime, education, religion, sport and leisure. Includes useful reports and cross-country Global Consumer Survey. Data is mostly for current years, but some historic data is available.
Institutional login

UK Data Service
Based at the University of Essex, UKDS holds the largest collection of social science digital data in the UK. Some relevant & ongoing surveys include: Labour Force Survey ; Living Costs & Food Survey; Understanding Society. Browse by theme or key data to get an idea of the main data sets available.
UNdata
Major portal to over 30 UN databases covering a wide range of topics

Social Surveys (International)

See the Politics subject guide for further links to Public Opinion polls

European Social Survey
Initiated in 2002, with surveys every two years, the ESS focuses on social & political attitudes, beliefs & behaviours in over 30 European countries
European Values Survey
Periodic survey starting in 1981 (with limited number of countries), with successive surveys every 9 years since.
Generations & Gender Programme (GGP)
Launched in 2000 as a successor to the Fertility & Family Survey, the GGP covers about 20 European countries & offers harmonized longitudinal, cross-national panel data on individual life courses and family dynamics, covering respondents relationships, marriages, parenthood, divorces, deaths, etc. It tracks the causes and consequences of these events at the individual and societal levels. Contextual data has regional and national level indicators to help increase understanding of the role policy and other factors play in individuals’ and families’ lives
International Household Survey Network (IHSN)
World Bank project to improve access to surveys, especially in developing countries. Details of over 4,000 census and population surveys, household and economic surveys (1950s onwards). Search by country or agency.
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
Cross-national surveys since 1985 of social attitudes and values across 50+ democracies.
Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS)
Developed by Jonathan Gershuny, the earliest files go back to 1960
Trust Tracker
Academic project looking at levels of trust in the UK and Japan towards areas such as healthcare, policing, religion, media
World Values Survey
Important source for social data on countries around the world from 1981. Surveys are currently carried out every 5 years.

Social Surveys (United Kingdom)

British Social Attitudes
Well established survey conducted by the National Centre for Social Research since 1983. The complete set is available in the library at HN 385.52.B7 and online (28th- 2011/12-) and as datasets through UK Data Service.
Centre for Longitudinal Studies (Institute of Education)
Home of the 1958, 1970, Millennium, and Next Steps cohort studies.
Community Life Survey
Government survey 2012/13-
General Lifestyle Survey
Originally General Household Survey. Ran from 1971-2012
National Centre for Social Research (UK)
Independent social survey/research institute, which coordinates the BSA survey.
Timescapes
UKs first major funded qualitative longitudinal study (2007-2012), exploring personal & family relationships over time.
UK Time Use Survey
2014/15 survey developed by the Centre for Time Use Research and supplemented with data from the Covid period
Understanding Society : the UK Household Longitudinal Study
ESRC Project coordinated by ISER at the University of Essex.

Social Surveys (United States)

American Community Survey
Annual survey conducted since 2005 by the Census Bureau to supplement the decennial census report. Great source of data on a whole range of topics.

Survey Software

Qualtrics
The University has an account for Qualtrics, which offers extensive online survey functionality
SurveyMonkey
The world's most popular free online survey tool.