Research Guides: Black Studies: Finding Data

Public Data Sets

U.S. Census Bureau This link opens in a new window
Leading source of up-to-date demographic data about the United States people and economy.

PUMS Data
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files are a set of untabulated records about individual people or housing units.
American Immigration Council
State-by-state immigration data and facts.
American National Election Studies
ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.
Centre for Economic Policy Research
The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) was founded in 1983 to enhance the quality of economic policy-making within Europe and beyond, by fostering high quality, policy-relevant economic research, and disseminating it widely to decision-makers in the public and private sectors.

CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy - Data This link opens in a new window
CLASP conducts analysis of national, state, and local data to accurately document racial disparities and disparate policy impacts by race to inform our policy recommendations and advocacy.

Data.gov
United States Federal Government clearinghouse for linked, open government data.
General Social Survey
Contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings.
Hate Map | Southern Poverty Law Center

ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
IPUMS This link opens in a new window
Database of census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. Users must create a free account to access.

National Center for Education Statistics
The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
State of Working America Data Library
Provides researchers, media, and the public with easily accessible, up-to-date, and comprehensive historical data on the American labor force. It is compiled from Economic Policy Institute analysis of government data sources. Use it to research wages, inequality, and other economic indicators over time and among demographic groups.
World Bank
The World Bank provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe.

The American Enterprise Institute
AEI is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise.
The Brookings Institute
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. with a mission to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan educational institute dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action.
Center for Economic Policy Research
CEPR is Europe’s leading network of Economic Policy Researchers. Over 1700 Fellows and Affiliates, based in institutions throughout Europe and beyond, contribute to our research, events and publications.
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Policy research on children and families. 1979-Current.

CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy - Data This link opens in a new window
CLASP conducts analysis of national, state, and local data to accurately document racial disparities and disparate policy impacts by race to inform our policy recommendations and advocacy.

Institute for Research on Poverty
IRP researches the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. We bring together social scientists from across research disciplines such as economics, sociology, social work, and demography. The result is a well-rounded understanding of poverty issues.
Measure of America-SSRC Project
Measure of America provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and stimulating fact-based dialogue about issues we all care about: health, education, and living standards.
Neighborhood Data for Social Change
A project of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, NDSC is a free, publicly available online resource for civic actors to learn about the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing Los Angeles County neighborhoods through maps, charts, data analysis, and storytelling.

Pew Research Center This link opens in a new window
A nonpartisan fact tank that publishes public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.
Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Over 12 million working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media from more than 35,000 municipalities, IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.

RAND Corporation
Economic and social policy with a historical focus on military research.
Southern Poverty Law Center
A nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.
Urban Institute
"At Urban, we believe that data and evidence are essential to shaping a more inclusive, equitable, and just society."

Policy Map This link opens in a new window
An online U.S. national data, mapping and analytics tool with applications for research related to social sciences, urban studies, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration, public health, policy and political science, education, business, economics, statistics, and geography, among others. No software installation needed.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information.

Mapping L.A.
Demographic data visualized by neighborhood from the LA Times
LAPD Crime Mapping
Interactive maps of crimes by type and neighborhood Sept 2011-Present.
Food Access Research Atlas
Presents an overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility. Offers census-tract-level data on food access that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.