Research Guides: *Sociology: Statistics and Data

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781-736-4667

Subjects:Anthropology, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Latin American and Latino Studies, Sexuality and Queer Studies, Sociology, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Data Sources from Brandeis Library

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR is the world's largest collection of digital social science data. Find qualitative and quantitative datasets, accompanying codebooks, publication lists and more. Formats include SPSS, Stata and Excel.
Working/studying from home in 2020? Request access to ICPSR data and resources by contacting icpsr-help@umich.edu. When you do, please let them know that you are a current student, faculty, or staff member at Brandeis University, and be sure to use your @brandeis.edu email address.

Access to this resource from off campus requires that users initially register for an account while on campus.
iPoll Databank - Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Comprehensive, up-to-date source for US nationwide public opinion, full-text searchable. Organized at the question level, the tools and functions available to sift through nearly a half million questions asked on national public opinion surveys, 1935 to present.
OECD iLibrary
Books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Published factbooks bring together essential statistics by theme; other statistical data can be manipulated as tables or charts within iLibrary and downloaded.
Social Explorer
Create maps and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change. Data sets include the US Census from 1790-2010, the American Community Survey, the Religious Congregations and Membership Survey, carbon emissions data from the Vulcan Project, and more.

Data Sources on the Web

Data.gov
Open data from U.S. federal agencies.
Data | U.S. Census Bureau (data.census.gov)
The U.S. Census Bureau is the primary generator of demographic statistics about the U.S. population. Access data from the decennial census, as well as the American Community Survey (ACS) and the American Housing Survey (AHS). Also includes business statistics, economic indicators, and foreign trade data.
Education Data Explorer | Urban Institute
Find data on U.S. schools, school districts, and colleges using this data tool which pulls together a number of datasets from the U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau.
General Social Survey (GSS)
Since 1972, GSS has collected sociological and attitudinal trend data covering the United States. Download the data and accompanying documentation to do your own analysis, or use the GSS Data Explorer to explore trends.
Pew Research Center
A nonpartisan "fact tank" that conducts data-driven social science research such as public opinion polling. Be sure to check out materials by research area, such as "Religion & Public Life" and "Hispanic Trends."

Data about Brandeis University

Students doing semester-long research projects sometimes ask for data on Brandeis University in order to provide context for their own study. Here are a few resources that might help!

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) | NCES
Data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. Use "Look Up an Institution" if you want to find information about a specific institution such as Brandeis.
Office of Planning and Institutional Research (OPIR) | Brandeis University
Institutional research is the research that Brandeis does about itself, and OPIR has made results of that research available on their website. For example, view survey instruments and selected reports or the University's reaccreditation documents.
Campus Studies | Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI)
SSRI develops reliable and valid quantitative data about the American Jewish community. Some of their campus reports involve research at Brandeis University, such as "All Together Separate: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion on the Brandeis Campus" (2016).

Get Help with Data Analysis and GIS at Brandeis Library

Brandeis Library has specialists who can help you learn about quantitative and qualitative data analysis in the social sciences, as well as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Check out the following guides to learn more!

Data Analysis
by Margarita Corral Last Updated Nov 23, 2020 567 views this year
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
by Alex Willett Last Updated Feb 25, 2021 594 views this year