Library Guides: Political Science Library Guide: Find Data & Statistics

Intro

Below are key data and statistics resources for Political Science.

For more resources, see Statistics & Data for the Social Sciences: A Guide.

Data Mapping

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
A data and mapping tool that enables government, commercial, non-profit and academic institutions to access data about communities and markets across the US.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer “contains over 18,000 maps, hundreds of profile reports, 40 billion data elements, 335,000 variables and 220 years of data”. It can be used to locate census tract boundary information from 1940 to the present.

Political Science Data Sets

Correlates of War
A standard source of information on global conflict dynamics, human rights abuses, and geo-political issues. Coverage of individual countries varies. Data collection began in 1963.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) This link opens in a new window
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. NOTE: off-campus access to some materials may require creating an account, login, and password with ICPSR.

Policy Agendas Project
The Policy Agendas Project collects and organizes data from various archived sources to trace changes in the national policy agenda and public policy outcomes since the Second World War. Data sets include federal legislative, executive, and Supreme Court activity, as well as public opinion, media, and budgets.
Polity Project
The Polity IV Project continues the Polity research tradition of coding authority characteristics of states in the world system for purposes of comparative, quantitative analysis. The Polity IV dataset covers all major, independent states in the global system over the period 1800-2013
World Values Survey
WVS is an opinion survey similar to the GSS in questions and topics addressed, but includes representative samples from about 90 countries ranging from post-industrial democracies to developing nations.
Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive
The Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive provides ranges of annual data from 1815 to the present for all countries for many variables of use to the social scientist researcher.

U.S. Polling Data

iPoll This link opens in a new window
iPoll is a finding aid to locate national US public opinion polls. iPOLL contains half a million survey questions and answers asked in the US over the last 65 years by more than 150 survey organizations. NOTE: You will need to create/register a user account and profile using a Tulane.edu email address to access this database.

Gallup Poll News (in Lexis-Nexis Academic)
Press releases and news based on polling from Gallup, a major source of public opinion research. For original Gallup polling data, use iPoll.
Harris Poll Interactive
Harris Poll provides some free polling data covering a wide range of issues and industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods.
American National Election Studies
The ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation. ANES is a collaboration of Stanford University and the University of Michigan, with funding by the National Science Foundation.
Polling Report.com
An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion. Most data free without subscription.

Roper iPoll This link opens in a new window
Provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, Roper iPoll is the largest collection of public opinion poll data with results from 1935 to the present. Roper iPoll contains nearly 800,000 questions and over 23,000 datasets from both U.S. and international polling firms. Surveys cover any number of topics including, social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, science, the environment, and much more. When available, results charts, demographic crosstabs and full datasets are provided for immediate download.

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
An independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. Best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and polling.

U.S. Census Data

"The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." (U.S. Const. art. I, § 2)

For assistance in using census data in your research, email library@tulane.edu.

Data.census.gov This link opens in a new window
The Census Bureau is the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. Starting in July, 2019, this new portal is the primary way to access Census Bureau data, including upcoming releases from the 2018 American Community Survey, 2017 Economic Census, 2020 Census and more.

Historical Census of Population & Housing
Historical decennial census publications in pdf format from 1790 to present.
"Special Collections & Reports" link provides access to additional historical census bulletins and data such as for imports & exports, manufactures, and religious bodies.

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer “contains over 18,000 maps, hundreds of profile reports, 40 billion data elements, 335,000 variables and 220 years of data”. It can be used to locate census tract boundary information from 1940 to the present.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Provides access to family history via documents that record the lineage of individuals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more.

1950 Census
1940 Census
Enumeration District Maps for Orleans Parish, Louisiana (NARA)
You can locate specific people by identifying the enumeration district in which they lived in and then browsing the census population schedules for that enumeration district.
National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
Provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2010.
U.S. Census of Religious Bodies
The U.S. Census collected data on religious organizations through the 1936 census. There are four complete surveys (1906, 1916, 1926, 1936) that measure the number of members in various denominations, by geographic unit.
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This data is made available online by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), a great source for religious statistics and data.

International Polling Data

Afrobarometer
A pan-African series of national public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, and society
Arab Barometer
The largest repository of publicly available data on citizens' views in the Middle East and North Africa.
Asian Barometer
Encompasses research teams from 14 East Asian states (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam), and 5 South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Round 1 was 2001-2003; Round 2 in 20005-2008; Round 3 2010-2012. Wave 4 2013-2016; Round 5 from 2018-2021). Data for a limited number of countries from Round 5 has been released. Each researcher must apply for access.
Eurobarometer
Eurobarometer is a collection of cross-country public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the EU Institutions since 1974.

Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) This link opens in a new window
Formerly known as AmericasBarometer, Vanderbilt University's Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) archives datasets of surveys of democratic public opinion and behavior in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults. Dataset coverage includes 2002 – present.
Latinobarometro This link opens in a new window
Latinobarometer is a public opinion survey that applies annually around 20,000 interviews in 18 countries in Latin America representing more than 600 million people.