This page catalogs high-quality, publication-grade secondary datasets suitable for independent research and advanced coursework in social science and data analytics. Entries are organized by topic.
Last reviewed: June 2026. Suggestions and corrections welcome.
Pick Your Topic
- Demographics & Population
- Labor & Employment
- Income, Wealth & Personal Finance
- Housing & Real Estate
- Health & Nutrition
- Education
- Political Behavior & Governance
- Conflict & Political Violence
- International Development & Trade
- Culture, Values & Social Attitudes
- Time Use & Consumption
- Historical Data
- Data Portals & Archives
Demographics & Population
American Community Survey (ACS)
Annual Census Bureau survey providing detailed demographic, social, economic, and housing data for US communities at multiple geographic scales.
Current Population Survey (CPS)
Monthly household survey conducted jointly by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics; the primary source for US labor force statistics, including the official unemployment rate.
IPUMS
Harmonized microdata from census and survey sources covering US and international populations; integrates ACS, CPS, Decennial Census, and international census files into a consistent, analysis-ready format. One of the most important data infrastructure projects in social science.
Labor & Employment
LABORSTA
International Labour Organization database covering employment, wages, working time, labor costs, and occupational injuries across countries.
Income, Wealth & Personal Finance
Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)
Triennial Federal Reserve survey of US household balance sheets, income, and financial behavior; the primary source for household wealth research.
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX)
Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of how US households allocate spending across goods and services; comprises separate Interview and Diary components released across multiple quarterly files.
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
Federal data portal covering US national accounts, GDP, personal income, industry output, and international trade in goods and services.
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Comprehensive repository of US and international macroeconomic time series maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; covers hundreds of thousands of series including GDP, inflation, interest rates, and employment.
US Historical Income Tax Rates
Historical tables on US federal income tax rates and brackets from the early twentieth century to the present.
UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID)
Comprehensive international database of income inequality estimates compiled from national surveys and administrative sources across countries and decades.
IMF International Financial Statistics (IFS)
IMF’s principal statistical publication covering balance of payments, monetary aggregates, exchange rates, interest rates, and financial sector data for countries worldwide.
Global Financial Development Database
World Bank database on the characteristics of countries’ financial systems, including banking sector depth, efficiency, stability, and access indicators.
Housing & Real Estate
American Housing Survey (AHS)
Biennial Census Bureau survey on US housing covering structural characteristics, costs, occupant demographics, neighborhood conditions, and recent movers.
HUD Data Portal
Department of Housing and Urban Development portal providing data on housing assistance programs, fair housing, housing markets, and community development.
IMF Global Housing Watch
IMF database tracking international housing price indices, valuation measures, and affordability indicators across countries.
Health & Nutrition
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
CDC/NCHS survey combining physical examinations and interviews to assess the health and nutritional status of US adults and children; released in two-year cycles across multiple domain-specific files.
CDC WONDER
CDC public health data portal providing access to mortality, natality, cancer incidence, and other population health databases, queryable by demographic and geographic characteristics.
World Bank HealthStats
World Bank portal aggregating international data on health outcomes, nutrition, and population drawn from WHO, UNICEF, and national sources.
Education
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
OECD triennial assessment of reading, mathematics, and science literacy among 15-year-old students across participating countries; one of the most widely used international education datasets.
World Bank EdStats
World Bank database covering international education indicators including access, completion, quality, and finance across countries and education levels.
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
NCES annual collection from all US colleges, universities, and technical schools receiving federal financial aid; covers enrollment, completion, faculty, finances, and graduate outcomes.
Political Behavior & Governance
American National Election Studies (ANES)
Pre- and post-election surveys of US voters covering political attitudes, candidate evaluations, party identification, and voter behavior; the standard dataset for electoral research.
Polity V Project
Longitudinal dataset coding the degree of democracy and autocracy for countries from the early nineteenth century to the present; a standard measure in comparative politics and international relations research.
Center for Systemic Peace
Portal to multiple datasets on governance quality, political stability, and state fragility, including the widely used State Fragility Index and Polity project data.
INSCR Data Page
Portal to multiple datasets on governance, political instability, and conflict, including data on forcibly displaced populations, state failure, terrorist bombings, coups d’état, and state fragility.
Conflict & Political Violence
Correlates of War Project
Long-running data collection covering interstate war, alliances, militarized disputes, national capabilities, and trade spanning the international state system from 1816 to the present.
Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946–2018
Event-level data chronicling major episodes of armed conflict — civil, ethnic, and interstate wars — from 1946 to 2018; authors claim comprehensive coverage.
International Development & Trade
World Development Indicators (WDI)
World Bank’s primary compilation of international development data covering economic growth, poverty, health, education, infrastructure, and environment for countries worldwide since 1960.
OECDstat
Comprehensive data portal covering OECD member countries on economic performance, labor markets, trade, social indicators, and governance.
OECD Better Life Index
OECD data on living standards across member and partner countries covering housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, health, and life satisfaction.
IMF Principal Global Indicators
IMF compendium of key macroeconomic indicators for major economies, including national accounts, trade balances, prices, and financial sector data.
World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS)
World Bank portal providing access to international merchandise trade and tariff data, enabling analysis of bilateral trade flows and trade policy across countries.
Data for Structural Economic Analysis
World Bank portal providing input-output tables and global value chain data for measuring the structure of international economic exchange.
World Bank Gender Data Portal
World Bank database of gender-disaggregated statistics covering education, economic participation, health, and political representation across countries.
World Bank Poverty and Equity Database
World Bank data portal covering poverty rates, inequality measures, and shared prosperity indicators across developing and emerging economies.
Culture, Values & Social Attitudes
General Social Survey (GSS)
Biennial NORC survey of US adults covering social attitudes, values, behaviors, and demographic characteristics; one of the most widely used datasets in American social science.
World Values Survey (WVS)
Multinational survey tracking cultural values, beliefs, and norms across countries over multiple waves since 1981; a major resource for cross-national research on culture and social change.
European Social Survey (ESS)
Biennial cross-national survey of social attitudes, values, and behaviors across European countries; known for rigorous methodology and consistent cross-wave comparability.
World Database of Happiness
Erasmus University Rotterdam archive of research findings on subjective wellbeing across countries, compiling evidence from hundreds of surveys and studies on life satisfaction and happiness.
Time Use & Consumption
American Time Use Survey (ATUS)
Annual BLS survey measuring how Americans allocate time across activities including paid work, childcare, leisure, and household tasks; the primary source for time use research in the United States.
Historical Data
Global Prices and Incomes Database
UC Davis database of historical prices, wages, and income data across countries and regions spanning several centuries; supports long-run comparative economic history research.
NBER Macrohistory Database
NBER archive of long-run historical time series on US and international economic conditions, covering business cycles, financial markets, prices, and production from the nineteenth century onward.
Wrigley and Schofield: Historical English Population
Historical demographic data on England from 1541 to 1871, based on the Cambridge Group’s parish register reconstruction; a foundational source in historical demography.
Data Portals & Archives
The following resources host many datasets across topics. Consult them when a topic-specific source above does not meet your needs.
ICPSR
The principal social science data archive in the United States, maintained by the University of Michigan; houses thousands of datasets spanning the full range of social science topics, including many not available elsewhere.
World Bank Data Catalog
Open data portal providing access to hundreds of World Bank datasets covering development, poverty, health, education, finance, and environment worldwide.
Data.gov
US federal government’s open data portal, aggregating datasets from across federal departments and agencies on topics from agriculture to transportation to public health.
NYC OpenData
Free public data published by New York City agencies and partners, covering city services, infrastructure, public safety, health, and demographics.
