Primary Political Science Data Sets & Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition
The best starting-place for statistical information on the United States, for the colonial era and 1790-2000 (including the Confederate States of America). Presents 37,339 data series on population (i...   [more]

ICPSR
Also Known as: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research SIMI Variables
USE OF ICPSR DATA REQUIRES STATISTICAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE AND GZIP DECOMPRESSION SOFTWARE. Direct-download access to social science quantitative data sets archived by ICPSR. Subjects covered includ...   [more]
Holdings: 1962-present.
Supplemental URLs
    ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature
    SDA Online Data Analysis System
    Publications-Related Archive
    SIMI: Site for Instructional Materials and Information
    SSVD: Social Science Variables Database

OECD iLibrary
Also Known as: Source OECD, SourceOECD
Publications and statistical information from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) covering agriculture and food, education and skills, emerging economies and transition e...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    
    
    
    
    

Important Political Science Data Sets & Statistics

Afrobarometer
Comparative national public attitude surveys on democracy, markets, and civil society in Africa....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Afrobarometer data sets (via ICPSR)

American Communities Project
Also Known as: Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences
Geographic mapping tools, statistical data, and reports on trends affecting US neighborhoods, cities, and regions regarding population, public schools, public health, crime, elections, economic condit...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

American Local Government Elections Database
The study of urban and local politics in the United States has long been hindered by a lack of centralized sources of election data. This new dataset of about 78,000 candidates in 57,000 electoral con...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    
    
    
    
    

American National Election Studies
Also Known as: ANES National Election Studies NES
Time series data from surveys conducted during U.S. presidential and congressional election years, 1948-present....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    ANES data sets and codebooks (via ICPSRdirect)
    SDA interface to ANES 2000 data (crosstabs, subsetting, extracts)
    NES Bibliography
    NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior
    ANES data sets and codebooks (alternative via ICPSRdirect)

American Public Opinion and United States Foreign Policy Series
Data files for quadrennial survey of opinions of the U.S. general public and a select group of opinion leaders on U.S. foreign policy....   [more]
Holdings: 1975-present.

AREAER Online
Also Known as: IMF AREAER , Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER)
[more]

Armed Conflict and Intervention Project
Data sets and bibliographic citations to data sets on world conflict regions, direct military interventions, political interaction events, bilateral trade flows, memberships in conventional intergover...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Asian Barometer
Cross-national survey of democratization and value changes....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Commitment to Development Index
Rates 21 rich countries on how much they help poor countries build prosperity, good government, and security. Each rich country gets scores in seven policy areas, which are averaged for an overall sco...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Comparative Political Data Set
Annual country-level political and institutional time series data: CPDS I covers 23 OECD countries, 1960-2009; CPDS II covers 28 post-Communist countries, 1989-2004; CPDS III covers 35 EU or OECD memb...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Comparative Study of Electoral Systems
Also Known as: CSES
FREE REGISTRATION REQUIRED. Cross-national collaborative program among election study teams in more than fifty countries, addressing the effects of electoral institutions on citizens' attitudes and ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Consolidated Federal Funds Report
Also Known as: CFFR
Federal expenditures or obligations for the following categories: grants, salaries and wages, procurement contracts, direct payments for individuals, other direct payments, direct loans, guaranteed or...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Constituency-Level Elections Archive (CLEA)
Statistics on election results for national legislatures, lower and upper chambers, worldwide, 1900 through 2016....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Constituency-Level Elections Dataset
The Constituency-Level Elections (CLE) dataset provides national and subnational election data at the district level of government for democratic countries around the world. ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Correlates of War 2
Also Known as: COW2
Data sets for studying the conditions associated with the outbreak of war. Longitudinal data, generally covering 1816-present, describe: state system membership, interstate wars, extrastate wars, intr...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    COW Dataverse

Council of European Social Science Data Archives
An umbrella organization for social science data archives across Europe....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Catalog

Data.gov
U.S. Government open data. Identifies and links to U.S. federal, state, and local data, tools, and resources....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

DataLumos
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
U.S. Presidential election voting results, 1892-present. Attractive map and chart presentations for nation, states, and counties....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections - data files
Data files on U.S. Presidential and Congressional and State Gubernatorial election results, acquired for Penn faculty, students, and staff....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Eagleton Poll Archive
Public opinion survey data and questionnaires from quarterly statewide polls of New Jersey residents, 1971-present....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Earmarks
US OMB-hosted database of funds provided by the Congress for projects or programs where the congressional direction (in bill or report language) circumvents the merit-based or competitive allocation p...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Election Statistics / Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives
Also Known as: Statistics of the presidential and congressional election , Statistics of the congressional election
Fulltext (PDF and HTML) of biennial reports on results of U.S. congressional elections and quadrennial reports on U.S. presidential and congressional elections, 1920-present....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Esri Data and Maps
[more]
Unrestricted Access

EUGene
Also Known as: Expected Utility Generation and Data Management Program
REQUIRES DOWNLOADING EXECUTABLES AND VERY LARGE FILES! Data management tool for testing the expected utility theory of war and dispute resolution by subsetting and extracting international relations d...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Eurobarometer Survey Series
Also Known as: Central and Eastern Eurobarometer
Semiannual public opinion surveys for European countries conducted for the European Commission, 1974 to present. CEEB subset covers "candidate" countries, 1990 to 1997....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    European Commission public opinion sector
    Eurobarometer Survey Series data (via ICPSR)
    Central and Eastern Eurobarometer data (via ICPSR)
    Eurobarometer Interactive Search System
    Mannheim Eurobarometer Trend File, 1970-2002 (via ICPSR)

European Election Database
Election data for European countries, 1990-present, covering national parliament and presidential elections, EU parliamentary elections, and EU-related referendums. Data are aggregated, following EU N...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

FACTS : Firearm Safety among Children and Teens
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Federal Assistance Award Data System
Also Known as: FAADS
Data on all types of financial assistance awards made by Federal agencies to all types of recipients, by quarter. Provides Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) program code number and name, t...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Field Poll (also known as California Poll)
Public opinion survey microdata from the leading statewide poll. Provides crosstabulation engine for 4 to 7 polls each year, 1956-2007....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Financial Tracking Service
Real-time database tracking all reported international humanitarian aid....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Fragile State Index
Comparative tool scoring a country's violent internal conflicts and the impact of mitigating strategies. In addition to rating indicators of state failure that drive conflict, it offers techniques for...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Gallup Brain
Gallup Poll Social Series question database....   [more]

GDELT : Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone
Current events database mined from international online news sources, 1979 to present....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Geo-referencing of Ethnic Groups
Ethnic group territories represented as polygons in an Esri shapefile....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

GESIS
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Global Barometers
Overview web site on cross-national survey programs on social, economic, and political conditions....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
[more]
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Global Development Finance
Also Known as: World Bank GDF Online
World Bank time series statistical data covering 1960 to the present, with forecast data for up to seven years, for the 210 countries reporting public and publicly-guaranteed debt. Data include extern...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    old interface url

Global Terrorism Database
Data on international and domestic terrorist incidents, 1970 to present....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Government Finance Statistics
Also Known as: IMF Government Finance Statistcs, IMF GFS
- from IMF eLibrary
[more]
Supplemental URLs
    GFS via old IMF interface

Harvard Dataverse Network
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Harvard Election Data Archive
Precinct-level results for as many U.S. elections as possible, federal or state, since 2000, linked to GIS boundary files of voting tabulation districts. These VTDs can easily be linked to 2000 and 2...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Health Poll Search
Searchable archive of public opinion questions on health issues, including abortion, alcohol an drugs, bioterrorism and biological weapons, political campaigns, elections, leaders and health, children...   [more]
Holdings: 1935-present.
Unrestricted Access

HOLIS 14 Points application
Reports on humanitarian aid from EU country donors and ECHO (European Community Humanitarian Office). Provides dollar values and brief descriptions of individual relief programs....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

HRDAG - Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group
Data sets and other materials for the statistical analysis of human rights claims worldwide....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

ICRG Historical Datasets
Monthly country-level time-series political risk rating components and subcomponents....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

ICRG Researchers Dataset
Also Known as: PRS Group International Country Risk Guide Researchers Dataset
Political risk time-series data, 1984-2005, from International Country Risk Guide Table 3B....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

IMF Data Mapper
Choropleth mapping and data graphing for IMF time series, including variables from World Economic Outlook, Balance of Payments Statistics, Government Finance Statistics, AFR Regional Economic Outlook,...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research data
Data sets include Forcibly Displaced Populations, Major Episodes of Political Violence, PITF State Failure Problem Set, High Casualty Terrorist Bombings, Memberships in Conventional Intergovernmental ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

International Crisis Behavior Project
Data on international crises, protracted conflicts, and crisis actors from 1918 through 2001. ICB Online provides an interactive interface to text summaries of individual crises....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    International Crisis Behavior Online (interactive)

International Financial Statistics Online
Also Known as: International Monetary Fund IFS, IMF IFS
- from IMF eLibrary
International Financial Statistics (IFS) is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. It reports, for most countries of the world, current dat...   [more]
Supplemental URLs
    IFS via old IMF interface

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Also Known as: IDEA
IDEA, an intergovernmental organization with member states across all continents, seeks to support sustainable democracy in both new and long-established democracies. Includes information on; politica...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    International IDEA Unified Database

iPOLL
Also Known as: Roper Center, RPOLL
REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION. Question-level data from public opinion polls. Almost 400,000 questions from polls, 1935 to present, based upon Roper Center-archived surveys with US national adult samples...   [more]
Holdings: 1935 to present. Updated daily.

ITANES - Italian National Election Studies
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Japanese Data Archive
Also Known as: JPOLL Roper Center
REQUIRES FREE ONLINE REGISTRATION. Comprehensive question-level database of Japanese public opinion data, 1990-present. More than 10,000 questions with response frequencies translated from Japanese in...   [more]
Holdings: 1990-present
Unrestricted Access

LABORSTA
Statistics on worldwide labor, employment, unemployment, hours of work, wages, labor cost, consumer price indices, occupational injuries, strikes and lockouts. Includes reference work, Sources & Metho...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Latin American Public Opinion Project
Also Known as: AmericasBarometer
Surveys of citizens of Latin America on their political views - specifically on democratic values and their behaviors related to democracy. Topics covered include the extent to which women may be excl...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    LAPOP data analysis and crosstabs

League of Nations Statistical and Disarmament Documents
PDF-format document collection produced by Northwestern University Library. Contains 260 League of Nations documents, 1926-1946. Includes Statistical Yearbook of the League of Nations....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Manifesto Project Database
Measures policy preferences for political parties in 50 countries worldwide, 1945-present, ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Migration and Remittances - World Bank Prospects
Comparative data and reports on international migration and transfers of funds from migrants to nation of origin....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Minorities at Risk
Also Known as: MARGene
Monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of politically-active communal groups in countries worldwide. Provides risk assessments and chronologies for each group. MARGene -- Minorities at Risk Da...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

National and International Data Sources and Links - United Nations Statistics Division
The UN provides links to the statistical agencies of member countries, as well as the names and links (where available) for statistical yearbooks for each country....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

National Annenberg Election Survey
Also Known as: NAES
Reports from public opinion survey conducted daily during presidential election campaigns in 2000 and 2004 in a rolling cross-section design....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

National Network of State Polls Dataverse
More than 500 state-level public opinion poll microdata datasets covering 25 individual U.S. states, 1971-2003. States include New Jersey, California, North Carolina, and Texas. Produced by the Odum I...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

National Transfer Accounts
Statistical information on how people at each age produce, consume, and share resources, and save for the future for countries worldwide. Intended to show how population growth and changing population...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

New Europe Barometer
Cross-national public opinion surveys covering Central European and Eastern European countries and Russia, 1991 to present. Formerly known as: New Russia Barometer, New Baltic Barometer, and New Democ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Online analysis (coming soon! from TARKI)

Odum Institute Data Archive
Also Known as: Harris Polls
Social science data archive, with holdings in economic, electoral, demographic, financial, health, and public opinion data. Repository for the Harris Polls. Also maintains the Public Opinion Poll Ques...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Public Opinion Poll Question Database

OECD.Stat
- from OECD iLibrary
Integrated search and tabulation interface for OECD statistical databases....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    
    
    
    
    

Open Data for Africa (African Development Bank)
[more]
Unrestricted Access

openICPSR
[more]
Unrestricted Access

Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1789-2006
Also Known as: Wilkes University Election Statistics Project
County-level election returns for Pennsylvania covering U.S. presidential (1789-2000), U.S. senatorial (1912-2000), and Pennsylvania gubernatorial elections (1790-2002), with calculated percentages an...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Pennsylvania Policy Database Project
[more]
Unrestricted Access

People on War
Series of surveys on popular opinion in 13 countries that have experienced war on the basic rules of war and conflict behavior. Sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    PoW printed reports (via ICRC web)
    Public Perspective article on PoW
    Penn Library Web superseded page

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Also Known as: News Interest Index, Pew Global Attitudes Project
Research center polling public attentiveness to major political and public policy issues and to the media. Includes cross-national Pew Global Attitudes Project. News Interest Index polls Americans on ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Pew Center survey data sets (free downloading)
    News Interest Index -- most closely watched news stories of the decade
    Pew Global Attitudes Project

Philadelphia Election Results
Election results, 2002 through 2010, by candidate, Philadelphia ward and precinct, vote type. Covers general elections, primaries, and special elections. Breaks out votes by machine, absentee ballot, ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    
    
    
    
    

Political Forecasting Special Interest Group
Also Known as: PollyVote, politicalforecasting.com
Public opinion poll summaries and analysis. ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Political Instability Task Force
Also Known as: State Failure Task Force
"Internal Wars and Failures of Governance, 1955-2007." Comparative information on cases of total and partial state failure in independent countries. Events include wars, ethnic wars, adverse regime ch...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2008
Coded annual information on regime and authority characteristics for independent states....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Polling the Nations
Primary data, fulltext for approximately 250,000 individual questions and aggregated responses, often cross tabulated by respondent characteristics, compiled from public opinion surveys. Topics cove...   [more]

Proquest Statistical Insight
Also Known as: Statistical Universe, lexisnexis statistical
Statistical Universe indexes statistical data published in federal, state, and selected privately published titles, at the table level. In some cases the fulltext of the document is also available....   [more]

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Numeric data archive for public opinion polls. Access is mediated through requests from Penn Library to Roper Center. Related online resources include: Roper Center's online catalog of data sets; and ...   [more]
Holdings: 1936-present.
Supplemental URLs
    Roper Center Interactive Collection Map
    Topics at a Glance (inc. Presidential Approval)
    Roper Center Select Bibliography
    Roper iPoll
    Health Poll Database

Science Works for US
Documents economic stimulus funding for university research activities nationwide. Identifies universities receiving funding through ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

TRACfed
Also Known as: TRAC Reports, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Trac Fed, TRAC
[more]
Supplemental URLs
    
    
    
    
    

U.S. Electoral College - Office of the Federal Register, NARA
Electoral College statistics and electoral votes, 1789 to present. Includes calendars for current presidential election, FAQs. ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, Obligations and Loan Authorizations
Also Known as: USAID Greenbook
US AID's Greenbook shows a complete historical record of United States (U.S.) foreign aid to the rest of the world. The Greenbook reports all loans and grants authorized by the U.S. Government for eac...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

UNCTAD-TRAINS (TRade Analysis and INformation System)
A comprehensive information system at the HS-based tariff line level covering tariff, para-tariff and non-tariff measures as well as import flows by origin for more than 140 countries ...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Uppsala Conflict Data Program
UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia. UCDP Georeferenced Event Database, and much more....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

V-Dem : Varieties of Democracy
Time series data and indicators for democracy and democratization in countries worldwide....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

World Bank Documents & Reports
Also Known as: World Development Sources, WDS
Page-image fulltext of more than 14,000 World Bank documents. Covers World Bank activities and interests worldwide in agriculture, economic policy, education and social protection, electrical power, o...   [more]
Holdings: 1960-present. Updated weekly.
Unrestricted Access

World Bank Research Datasets
Datasets compiled for World Bank research in agriculture, domestic and household finance, education, environment, globalization, governance, health, population and demography, industry, infrastructure...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

World Development Indicators
Also Known as: World Bank WDI Online
The World Bank's principal data source on the global economy. More than 550 time series, 1960-present, on more than 200 countries and 18 country groups, covering demographic, social, economic, financi...   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    old interface url
    old interface url

World Values Survey
Also Known as: WVS
Cross-national survey, 1981 to present, on basic values and beliefs of national societies....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    WVS data (via ICPSR)
    Online analysis tool (SDA interface via UMich Library NSDS)

Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank)
Aggregate and individual governance indicators for 212 countries and territories over the past decade, for six dimensions of governance: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Vi...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

Related Political Science Data Sets & Statistics

ARDA - Association of Religion Data Archives
The Association of Religion Data Archive collects quantitative data sets for the study of American religion. The ARDA was established to meet four goals: preservation of data, improved access to data,...   [more]
Unrestricted Access

General Social Survey
Also Known as: GSS
Omnibus personal interview survey of U.S. households, conducted almost annually....   [more]
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Quick download: GSS 1972-2010 datasets (Roper Express)
    GSS Bibliography
    GSS 1972-2010 Quick Tables (with charts) (Berkeley SDA Archive)
    NORC Official GSS Site
    Extracting Data from the GSS into SPSS

UNdata
The central statistical information service for the United Nations and its affiliates and international partners. Replaces UNSTATS....   [more]
Unrestricted Access

UNSTATS
Also Known as: United Nations Common Database, UNCDB
Time series statistical information for countries collected from UN and related international governmental organizations. Topics covered include population composition and change; human settlements, h...   [more]
Unrestricted Access