Subject Guide: Economics: Economic Data Websites

American Community Survey (ACS) -- The ACS has replaced the old "long-form" version of the Decennial Census and is now used to collect the more detailed socio-economic information that the Decennial Census no longer gathers. Note that the ACS consists of multiple "data products" gathered over different ranges of time and covering different levels of geography. See https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data.html for an overview of different ways to access ACS data.

American FactFinder -- The American FactFinder is an extensive source for census statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Users can create data tables from the Decennial Census (2000 and 2010), the American Community Survey (2000-present), and the Economic Census (1997, 2002, and 2007) and download those tables into spreadsheet files. See http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/what_we_provide.xhtml for a list of available data collections..

Carolina Population Center -- The CPC is an organization located at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that promotes demographic research. There are links to the research projects underway as well as a nice set of links to various demographic research sources.

CDC Wonder Population Information -- CDC Wonder includes a site that provides annual population estimates for different age, race, and gender groups. Users can get estimates at the national, state, or county levels, from 1990 onwards.

Census Bureau (U.S.) -- The Census Bureau gathers a dizzying amount of social, demographic, and economic information about the United States through various means. The Subject Index is a good starting point for browsing and searching through the Bureau's wealth of information.

Census Bureau Population Estimates -- The Census' Population Estimates site provides annual population estimates for different categories of age, race, and gender, extending back to 1970. Estimates are at the national and state levels, with some additional estimates for counties and metro areas.

Current Population Survey (CPS) -- The Current Population Survey is a joint project between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS is a monthly survey that collects basic socio-demographic information, labor force characteristics, and economic status. To access CPS data files, users can download the data from an FTP site or use various tools for creating tables from the microdata. Alternately, they can go to the National Bureau of Economic Research's CPS site or to IPUMS-CPS.

ICPSR U.S. Census Bureau Data Repository -- The ICPSR has an extensive collection of both aggregate data and microdata from the Census Bureau, including data from the Decennial Census, the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, the American Housing Survey, and other data collections. The holdings include much historic Census data, various one-off data collections, and TIGER boundary files.

International Data Base -- As part of the Census Bureau's International Programs International Data Base (IDB) contains statistical tables of annual demographic data for 227 countries and areas of the world, covering topics such as population distributes by age an sex, components of population growth, morality, and life expectancy.

International Migration Institute Network Data -- Oxford University's MigrationOxford research hub includes the International Migration Institute Network, which hosts various datasets on migration flows (total and bilateral) and migration policies for dozens of countries since 1945.

IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) USA -- The IPUMS project at the University of Minnesota is an excellent source for Census data in the form of microdata samples from each decennial Census from 1850-2000 and from the American Community Survey for 2001 and onwards. See https://usa.ipums.org/usa/sampdesc.shtml for a list of the samples available via IPUMS. The data include standardized/harmonized variables for topics such as industry, occupation, race and ethnicity, and educational attainment, for easier comparisons of data over time. The microdata come with geographic tools and boundary files, to assist with geographic analyses of the individual-level data. IPUMS-USA is one of many IPUMS efforts - see https://www.ipums.org/ for the full list.

IPUMS International -- The IPUMS International project at the University of Minnesota provides access to microdata samples from population censuses in dozens of countries from different regions and income categories and includes both the original data and harmonized variables for easier comparison over time and/or across countries. See https://international.ipums.org/international-action/sample_details for a list of the available samples.

Migration and Remittances Data -- The World Bank provides annual updates on migration data and flows of remittances.

Missouri Census Data Center (MCDC) -- The MCDC provides various tools to extract data from the Decennial Census for 1980 onwards and for the American Community Survey, as well as for other federal data on topics such as unemployment, health insurance, poverty, and population estimates. The MCDC also has an extensive set of data and tools for working with geographies used by the Census Bureau.

National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) -- The NHGIS at the University of Minnesota distributes boundary files for Census tracts back to 1910 (varying by state), as well as historical and current aggregate Census data at various geographic levels. In addition to data taken from Census reports, NHGIS also distributes data on topics such as mortality and vital statistics, Depression-era bank closures, land cover and and climate, and historic Census data standardized into 2010-vintage geographies for time-series analyses.

Office of Population Research (OPR) -- The well-known OPR at Princeton University archives a number of datasets of interest to those studying demography and demographics, with a particular focus on migrants and immigration.

Population Studies Center (University of Michigan) -- The Population Studies Center is a great site for interdisciplinary research on population studies. The site also maintains a significant collection of data.

SEER U.S. Population Data -- The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program distributes annual county-level population data broken down by combinations of age, gender, and race/ethnicity, for 1969 onwards.

Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4) -- The S4 team at Brown University hosts various projects that make use of census data and geographic data to examine topics such as segregation, depopulation, urbanization, and tools to standardize historic U.S. Census data into current geographic boundaries. See https://www.brown.edu/academics/spatial-structures-in-social-sciences/projects for the full list of U.S. and international projects.

Statistical Abstract of the United States -- The Statistical Abstract contained a wealth of information on numerous socio-economic and demographic indicators for the United States. Historical data tables taken from the Statistical Abstract are available via the Internet Archive. While the Census Bureau has discontinued publication of the Statistical Abstract, the Abstract is now being published by ProQuest and is now available via Databases at Emory.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Immigration Statistics -- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS) publishes the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics and other collections of statistical information on topics such as immigration flows, immigration enforcement, and estimates of unauthorized immigration populations.

World Population Prospects -- This database is produced by the United Nations' Population Division and contains cross-national data on basic population demographics and vital statistics (e.g. birth and death rates, maternal mortality, population by age and gender and urban/rural areas, median age of population). See http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/dataset/index.shtml for other data from the Population Division, cover topics such as migration, fertility, marital status, and population policies.

Bureau of Economic Analysis -- The BEA is an excellent source for macroeconomic data, with a focus on national accounts - GDP and its components such as income, consumption, investment, and government expenditure. It also provides much data on employment and compensation by industry. Data are available at the national, state, and local levels, in annual, quarterly and (in some cases) monthly increments. Some industry-level data and balance-of-payments data are also available. See http://www.bea.gov/itable/ for direct access to the data.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) -- The BLS contains much data on employment, wages, and prices, at both the national and sub-national levels. See http://www.bls.gov/bls/proghome.htm for a topical breakdown of the BLS' data holdings, and see http://www.bls.gov/guide/geography/ for a summary of data availability by level of geography. Be warned that the website is not always easy to navigate.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) -- The Bureau of Transportation Statistics is an extensive source for data collections and statistical information for various modes and aspects of transportation, from highway safety to airline performance and traffic to border crossings. The Transtats Database may be of particular use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Office of Policy Information in the Federal Highway Adminstration are related sources for data and statistics on travel.

Census Bureau (U.S.) -- The Census Bureau gathers a dizzying amount of social, demographic, and economic information about the United States through various means. The Subject Index is a good starting point for browsing and searching through the Bureau's wealth of information. The Census Bureau's Business & Industry site provides a list of economic surveys conducted by the Census Bureau and the topics and geographic areas that each survey covers.

County Business Patterns (CBP) -- The County Business Patterns provide data for employment and establishments by industry, for counties, ZIP codes or Congressional districts. You can either query or download Business Patterns data.

Current Population Survey (CPS) -- The Current Population Survey is a joint project between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS is a monthly survey that collects basic socio-demographic information, labor force characteristics, and economic status. To access CPS data files, users can download the data from an FTP site or use various tools for creating tables from the microdata. Alternately, they can go to the National Bureau of Economic Research's CPS site or to IPUMS-CPS.

Department of Energy Energy Information Administration (EIA) -- The EIA is a very extensive source for data on energy consumption in the United States, with both annual and monthly data available. The EIA also has a collection of "navigators" with additional data on various categories of energy, such as the Petroleum Navigator that includes national and state-level data on prices, production, and consumption. The EIA also has much international data available.

Economic Policy Uncertainty Index -- The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index project attempts to quantity economic uncertainty created by macroeconomic policy by coding media coverage, tax codes, and economic forecasts. The data are available in monthly increments

Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- ERS provides economic and other information and analysis on agriculture,, food consumption and access, international trade, and rural areas.

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Housing Price Index -- The FHFA Housing Price Index (formerly the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) Housing Price Index) is a quarterly index of prices for single-family houses. Data are available for the U.S. as a whole and for individual states and regions. Data are available from 1975 onwards, varying by geographic area and are part of a range of housing-related data available from the FHFA

Federal Reserve Board: Data Releases -- The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system publishes a series of data releases on monetary and financial indicators on topics such as household finances, interest rates, exchange rates, industrial production, and monetary aggregates. Data from the various releases can be queried and downloaded via the Data Download Program.

Federal Reserve Economic Data (FREDII) -- FRED II includes time-series data for variables such as GDP, interest rates, exchange rates, consumer prices, and banking. There also also add-ins available to access and use FRED data in Excel, R, R (again), Stata, and Stata (again). Most of the data are from the 1950's onwards, though some series extend back prior to WWII.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago National Activity Index (CFNAI) -- The CFNAI is, to quote the website, a "weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity ... The 85 economic indicators that are included in the CFNAI are drawn from four broad categories of data: production and income; employment, unemployment, and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders, and inventories." Data from a precursor to the CFNAI are available at this site. The CFNAI is one of many data releases produced by the Chicago Fed. Note that each of the district banks within the Federal Reserve system collects data and constructs indices on conditions within its district as well.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Center for Data and Statistics -- The FRBNY's Center for Microeconomic Data publishes quarterly reports and data both on household debt/credit broken down by source (e.g. student loans, auto loans, real estate) and on consumer expectations. Note that each of the district banks within the Federal Reserve system collects data and constructs indices on conditions within its district as well.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia - Research and Data -- The Philadelphia Fed conducts research and collects data on economic conditions within its district, including state-level indices on current economic conditions and leading economic indicators. Note that each of the district banks within the Federal Reserve system collects data and constructs indices on conditions within its district as well.

Internal Revenue Service Tax Statistics -- This site from the IRS contains both reports and spreadsheets on various categories of taxes and income. Data are available for different types of tax forms and for taxes paid by individuals, by businesses, or by charitable organizations. Data are also available at various levels of geography, including states, counties, and ZIP codes. The statistics are generally published in various IRS publications and releases.

Monthly and Annual Retail Trade -- The Census Bureau measures economic activity in retail industries in terms of both sales and inventories. Data are available in both monthly and annual increments. Quarterly data on e-commerce are also available. The Census Bureau currently uses the NAICS system to classify industries. For older data using the SIC system, see the "Historical Releases"

National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (NASS) -- NASS is a good source for very detailed data on agricultural production and economics, including data from the Census of Agriculture

National Bureau of Economic Research -- In addition to its work on business cycles, the NBER has an eclectic data archive that covers topics such as cross-national technology adoption, manufacturing productivity, financial openness and exchange rate regimes, and economic policy uncertainty. Its data archive also covers topics such as labor markets, health economics, and population demographics.

National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) -- The National Science Foundation collects much data on education and the sciences, including topics such as skill levels among the labor force, public and private expenditures on research and development, and public attitudes towards the sciences. The NSF provides various tools and interfaces for accessing both aggregated statistics and microdata from NSF surveys. There are also many statistical publications available. Statistics from older NSF data-collection programs are also available via the Industrial Research and Development Information System (IRIS).

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics -- The PSID is a longitudinal study of economic and demographic behavior among different social groups in the US.

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices -- The Case-Shiller Housing Price Indices are another common measure of housing prices in the U.S. Indices are available for the U.S. as a whole and for 20 individual cities. For a review of how the Case-Shiller indices differ from those of the FHFA, see this review of the different measures.

Statistical Abstract of the United States -- The Statistical Abstract contained a wealth of information on numerous socio-economic and demographic indicators for the United States. Historical data tables taken from the Statistical Abstract are available via the Internet Archive. While the Census Bureau has discontinued publication of the Statistical Abstract, the Abstract is now being published by ProQuest and is now available via Databases at Emory.

Banks Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive -- The Banks CNTS Data Archive is a very comprehensive collection of political, economic, and demographic variables, including regime type, legislative effectiveness, the nature of the executive, and cabinet size. Depending on the country and variable, the data go back to 1815. The CNTS data are available to current Emory faculty/students/staff upon request. To access the data, please contact Dr. Robert O'Reilly.

Bureaucratic Structure and Economic Performance -- This site houses data and documentation for a project by James E. Rauch and Peter B. Evans on bureaucratic quality and structure and "meritocracy" in 35 developing countries.

Cingranelli and Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset -- The CIRI Human Rights Dataset contains data on government practices with regard to human rights, including variables on torture, religious freedom, "disappearances," and workers' rights. The data cover the years 1981-2010. While registration is required to access the data, the registration is free.

Comparative Political Data Sets (CPDS) -- The CPDS were produced by scholars at the University of Berne. They are similar to the Database of Political Institutions dataset (see below) but focus on OECD countries and post-communist countries and have more emphasis on demographics, electoral results, and ideological compositions of governments. Related datasets are also available for post-communist countries and for countries that are members of the OECD and/or the European Union. Please note the authors' preferred citation format.

Comparative Welfare States Data Set (CWSDS) -- The CWSDS is a joint effort by comparative welfare-state scholars such as Evelyne Huber, Charles Ragin, John D. Stephens, and Duane Swank. The data cover 18 OECD countries from 1960 onwards and include many economic, political, and policy variables, including the structure of political institutions and of wage-bargaining institutions.

Database of Political Institutions -- This database was put together in part by Phillip Keefer at the World Bank and provides data on the political institutions and structures of different countries in the world from 1975 to 2012. Updates to the data are now available via the Inter-American Development Bank, with coverage currently up through 2017. Please note the authors' preferred format for citing their data.

"Democracy Indicators Cross-national Time-Series Dataset" -- This dataset was compiled by Professor Pippa Norris at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and contains various measures of democratic government from sources such as Freedom House and Polity IV (referenced elsewhere on this page). The documentation identifies the sources for the variables; users need to consult those sources for more information. In addition to the time-series dataset, Dr. Norris has also compiled a "Shared Global Indicators Cross-national Database" which is also available at this site.

"Democratic Electoral Systems Around the World" -- This collection compiled by Matthew Golder provides data for "some of the more important electoral institutions used in all legislative and presidential elections during democratic periods in 199 countries between 1946 (or independence) and 2000 (...) The dataset covers a wide range of institutional features including regime type, the electoral formula, the average and median district magnitude, the number of constituencies and upper tier seats, assembly size etc." The data were recently updated to provide coverage up through 2011. The data are also available via Golder's DataVerse.

Freedom House -- Freedom House's annual Freedom in the World reports score countries on a 1-7 scale for both politcal rights and civil liberties. Users can download Freedom Houses' annual rankings via an Excel file with data going back to 1972; go to "Reports" and then choose "Freedom in the World."

Harvard Dataverse -- Harvard Dataverse is a repository for research data.

Institutions and Elections Project Dataset (IAEP) -- The IAEP, which now finds its home at Håvard Hegre, contains data on political institutions for both democratic and non-democratic states. The data cover the period 1972-2012 and measure institutions such as legislatures, executives, judiciaries, central banks, and electoral systems. The data were originally housed at SUNY-Binghamton.

International Human Rights Studies Center (IHRSC) (via the Internet Archive) -- The IHRSC at the University of North Texas hosts Steven Poe and Neal Tate's much-cited human-rights datasets. The data and documentation are available for free.

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) -- The IPU website contains much information about both national and supranational parliaments. The PARLINE database includes general information on the structure of parliaments (e.g. chambers, constituencies, electoral systems, political mandates). The IPU also provides data on female representation in national parliaments from the late 1990's onwards.

Political Constraint Index (POLCON) Dataset -- The POLCON dataset is managed by Professor Witold Henisz at the Wharton School of Management. The dataset measures political constraints on the executive in the form of multiple political actors (e.g. legislative chambers, courts). The dataset and codebook are downloadable upon provision of contact details.

Political Database of the Americas (PDA) -- The PDA's data holdings are mainly for elections, but the site also has information on local governance and decentralization, political parties, and executive, legislative, and judicial institutions for the countries of North, Central, and South America.

Political Risk Services (PRS) Group Risk Data -- The Data Center's holdings include data resources from the PRS Group and other sources that measure "risk" in the form of political (in)stability and institutional quality (e.g. levels of corruption).

Political Terror Scale (PTS) -- Mark Gibney at UNC-Asheville has created a 5-point "political terror scale" that codes countries on human-rights conditions and the rule of law, based on reports from Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department. The data cover the years 1976-2014 and are available for downloading.

Polity IV Project Homepage -- The Polity Project data contain information on regime type and political structures (e.g. constraints on executive power, competitiveness of political participation) of states since 1800. Registration is required to access the data.

Measures of Democracy 1810-2012 -- The Polyarchy Dataset was compiled by Tatu Vanhanen and scores countries on political competition, political participation, and an overall democracy index. The data coverage is from 1810 to 2012. See "The Polyarchy Dataset" for an earlier version of these data.

Preliminary References in EC Law -- This dataset was compiled by Alec Stone Sweet and Thomas L. Burnell and contains information on all the preliminary references filed with the European Court of Justice from 1961 to 2006. The data and documentation are also available here and here.

Quality of Government (QOG) Institute -- The QOG Institute is hosted by members of the Department of Political Science at Göteborg University in Sweden and is devoted to "the causes, consequences and nature of 'good governance.'" The Institute has created four collections of data on governance: a broad collection of governance indicators that is global in coverage; a more narrow collection that focuses on social policy in wealthier countries; data from expert surveys on politicization and professionalization of public administration in individual countries, and a new data collection on perceptions of corruption in individual regions within EU members. The data are compiled from multiple sources, including the Polity IV Project, the Cingarelli-Richards Human Rights Data, Transparency International, Freedom House, various international organizations, and datasets produced by various academics. The QoG data are available in SPSS, Stata, and comma-delimited (.csv) formats.

State Failure Dataset -- The Political Instability Task Force (formerly at George Mason University) has compiled datasets with variables on ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, genocide, "politocide," and regime change in 96 countries for the years 1955 onwards.

Transparency International -- TransparencyInternational ranks countries based on perceived levels of corruption and publishes those rankings in annual reports. The reports also include rankings on the propensity of firms in different industrialized countries to bribe officials in developing countries. The reports are in .pdf format and go back to 1995. Transparency International's data are also accessible via the Internet Center for Corruption Research.

World Bank Actionable Governance Indicators (AGI) Data Portal -- The AGI data portal brought together hundreds of governance-related indicators from multiple data sources and makes them available via tools for downloading and visualization. The site is no longer active, but some of its contents are available via the Wayback Machine. See https://web.archive.org/web/20150921192302/https://www.agidata.org/Site/Sources.aspx for a full list of available indicators and data. You can also download data that were accessible via the AGI Data Portal via the Bank's Data Catalog.

World Bank GovData360 -- GovData360 "contains more than 4700 governance-related indicators on state capacity, efficiency, openness, inclusiveness, accountability, integrity, and trust in government," drawing from a long list of sources. You can download and access indicators via a query tool or download the data in bulk form via the Bank's Data Catalog.

World Bank Public Sector Governance -- This World Bank site provides a variety of data and non-data resources relevant for the study of institutions, including a list of indicators of governance and institutional quality. This site also has a page devoted to decentralization that includes a cross-national time-series dataset on measures of fiscal decentralization.

World Bank Institute Governance Indicators -- This dataset covers 200 countries from 1996 onwards, biannually for 1996-2002 and annually afterwards. The six governance indicators include government effectiveness, rule of law, and political stability. The data and rescaled data from their underlying sources are also available at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx.

World Governance Assessment (WGA) -- The WGA project focuses on governance and institutional quality as they pertain to development in less-developed countries. The project includes a dataset derived from surveys conducted in 30 LDC's in 1996 and 2000. The dataset contains variables measuring transparency, accountability, participation, and efficiency in six government arenas - civil society, political society, government, bureaucracy, the judiciary, and economic society.

Angus Maddison Historical Statistics -- Angus Maddison was an economics professor whose various books - Monitoring the World Economy and The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective - are major works in the field of economic history and contain much historical data on GDP, GDP/capita, and population for countries throughout the world. Since Dr. Maddison's death, the Groningen Growth and Development Centre has continued to update his data. His original site contains links both to excerpts from his books and to much of the original data within them. After his passing, The Economist published this obituary on his life and works.

Katherine Barbieri's International Trade Dataset -- Professor Katherine Barbieri at the University of South Carolina has compiled a dataset of national and bilateral trade flows covering the years 1870-2009. This dataset (and others) is freely available for download. Data with coverage up through 2014 are also available via the Correlates of War Project.

China Data Online -- China Data Online is a collection of data on economics, demographics, and other such topics. Data are available for China as a whole and for individual provinces, counties, and cities. Depending on the topic and geographic area, data are available in annual, quarterly, or monthly increments. China Data Online is also accessible via Databases at Emory.

Comparative Political Data Sets (CPDS) -- The CPDS were produced by scholars at the University of Berne. They are similar to the Database of Political Institutions dataset (see below) but focus on OECD countries and post-communist countries and have more emphasis on demographics, electoral results, and ideological compositions of governments. Related datasets are also available for post-communist countries and for countries that are members of the OECD and/or the European Union. Please note the authors' preferred citation format.

Comparative Welfare States Data Set (CWSDS) -- The CWSDS is a joint effort by comparative welfare-state scholars such as Evelyne Huber, Charles Ragin, John D. Stephens, and Duane Swank. The data cover 18 OECD countries from 1960 onwards and include many economic, political, and policy variables, including the structure of political institutions and of wage-bargaining institutions.

Datastream -- Datastream is a very comprehensive source for data on exchange rates, interest rates, prices, stocks, and various other macroeconomic and microeconomic data. It is available on workstations in Center for Digital Scholarship. Guides for Datastream are available via Stanford University and via Erasmus University. To use Datastream, please contact Dr. Robert O'Reilly.

Eurostat -- Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union and collects a dizzying array statistical information on member states of the EU and other selected countries (e.g. non-EU OECD members, non-EU members in Eastern Europe). Much of their data are accessible on-line here and cover topics such as population, demographics, balances of payments and economics, agriculture, the environment, and other socio-economic indicators, and much data for sub-national regions within EU member states.

Global Market Information Database (GMID) -- GMID is produced by Euromonitor International and contains time-series data (1977-present) on a very wide range of economic and social indicators such as income, GDP, consumer expenditures, and population demographics. The data are available through both Excel-ready spreadsheets and .pdf reports. GMID is also accessible via Databases at Emory.

Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) -- The GGDC is run by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. It offers a variety of downloadable datasets with economic data for both developed and developing countries (although the most detailed data are for developed countries). The data cover topics such as factor productivity, input-output tables, and national accounts/GDP data for very extended periods of time. GGDC formerly hosted the Total Economy Database, which provides data on GDP, employment, labour productivity, and relative importance of different factors of production to economic output.

Indiastat -- Indiastat focuses on India specifically and contains data on a very wide range of social, economic, and political topics. IndiaStat is also accessible via Databases at Emory.

International Labour Organization -- The ILO is the main international labor-rights advocacy group in the world and has brought together a variety of information about labor rights and working conditions internationally. You can access their databases directly at http://www.ilo.org/global/statistics-and-databases/lang--en/index.htm.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Macroeconomic and Financial Data -- The IMF's data library covers topics such as investment flows, monetary aggregates, economic output, commodity prices, exchange rates, public finances, financial institutions and markets, and both public and private debt. The available databases include the Balance of Payments Statistics, the Direction of Trade Statistics, the Government Finance Statistics, and the International Financial Statistics.

International Trade Administration (ITA) -- The ITA, which is situated within the Department of Commerce, is encharged with promoting access to foreign markets for U.S. exports.Amongst other things, the ITA is a good source for national and state-level data on exports and imports of merchandise goods.

International Trade Commission (ITC) -- The ITC is an (ostensibly) independent federal agency that conducts investigations into "unfair" trading practices (e.g. dumping) in conjunction with the International Trade Administration.The ITC's website includes resources such as Tariff Information Center, which provides access to the tariff schedules for the United States, and the Interactive Tariff and Trade Dataweb, which allows users to query ITC databases on tariffs and trade amounts for specific products.

OECD iLibrary -- The OECD iLibrary is an online interface that provides full-text access to OECD studies, periodicals, and the OECD.Stat collection of statistical databases. The topical range of the iLibrary is considerable and covers areas such as agricultural policies, environmental indicators, social expenditures, labour markets, national accounts, foreign trade and FDI, and various industry-level data. While its focus is on wealthier developed countries, the iLibrary also includes OECD reports and publications on selected non-member countries such as the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. OECD iLibrary is also accessible via Databases at Emory.

OECD Query Wizard for International Development Statistics (QWIDS) -- QWIDS is a (relatively) accessible interface for very detailed data on foreign aid and development assistance that allows you to break down aid flows by combinations of recipient, donor, and purpose of aid. For more recent decades, you can get both project-level microdata as well as data on aggregated flows of development assistance.

Penn World Tables (PWT) -- The Penn World Tables provide data on "relative levels of income, output, input and productivity" that are comparable across countries and time in PPP-adjusted terms.

UNCTAD Trade Analysis and Information System (TRAINS) -- TRAINS is a bilateral trade database from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistics that provides product-specific data on tariffs and non-tariff measures. TRAINS is also available via the World Bank's World DataBank and via the Global Database on Non-Tariff Measures.

United Nations Commodity Statistics Trade Database (Comtrade) -- The UN's Comtrade database is a good source for commodity-specific bilateral trade data for the years 1962 onward. Users can create their own extracts of data for both value and quantity of trade using different industrial classification codes and download those extracts for later use. Comtrade now also includes data on trade in services. This resource is also available via Databases at Emory.

UNCTADStat -- UNCTAD maintains a database on FDI statistics, including flows, stocks, and participation in international investment-related agreements. It covers the years 1970 onward and allows users to download data into Microsoft Excel. UNCTAD's World Investment Reports are another useful source for FDI flows and stocks. UNCTAD's FDI data are part of a database on economic data more generally, including data on macroeconomic indicators, trade flows and trade restrictions, remittances, and commodity prices.

World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) -- The WDI provides convenient access to hundreds indicators on over 200 countries and territories. Data are available annually from 1960 forward, with variation across countries and indicators. The database is part of the Bank's Data Catalog of statistical databases and other data collections. There are also multiples tools available for importing WDI data directly into programs such as R and Stata.

World Bank Trade Data -- The World Bank's Trade and International Integration Group holds several databases on trade and production, trade and services, and tariffs that users can download. The Trade and Production Database may be of particular interest due to its detailed industry-level production, trade, and tariff data. Be warned that addresses of World Bank websites can change without warning; archived copies may be available via the Wayback Machine. Many of the Bank's trade-related data collections are also available via the Bank's Data Catalog and via the Bank's Microdata Library.

World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) -- WITS is a joint undertaking of UNCTAD, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization to integrate various databases on trade flows and trade restrictions. The WITS databases provide information on tariff schedules, non-tariff measures, and bilateral trade and tariff levels. Registration is required to use the WITS interface, but that registration is free of cost. WITS data are also accessible via the Bank's Data Catalog.

American Time Use Survey (ATUS) -- The ATUS, which is hosted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, commuting, and socializing" (to quote the homepage).The site contains data and reports for different iterations of the ATUS and links to sites for time-use studies in different countries.Earlier time-use surveys for the U.S. are available via the ICPSR. Harmonized ATUS data are also available via the University of Minnesota.

Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) -- The ARDA contains many datasets pertaining to religion, such as surveys on topics such as the public's religious attitudes and practices, surveys of church leaders, and studies on the provision of social services by individual congregations. ARDA also provides geographic profiles of congregations and demographic profiles of denominations. While its primary focus is on the United States, ARDA also has much comparative/international data on religion, including single-nation studies on topics such as spirituality and health, cross-national surveys on topics such as the role of religion in political life, and cross-national data on matters such as religious populations and measures of religious freedom. Researchers should go to the Data Archive for a directory of the different studies available.

"Bowling Alone: Data" -- This site hosts data used by Professor Robert Putnam in his Bowling Alone study of "social capital" in the United States. The data cover topics such as civic engagement, trust in others and in social institutions, etc. Additional relevant data for the study of social capital are available via the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America and via the Roper Center.

CPANDA Data Archive -- The Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA) at Princeton University allows users to download studies in its collection of data on matters pertaining to cultural policy and the arts. The data in this archive is currently being transferred to the National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture at the ICPSR.

Current Population Survey (CPS) -- The Current Population Survey is a joint project between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS is a monthly survey that collects basic socio-demographic information and labor force characteristics. To access CPS data files, users can go through the Data Ferrett. Alternately, they can go to the National Bureau of Economic Research's CPS site here or to the IPUMS CPS site here.

Gender Equality Data and Statistics -- The World Bank's collection of gender-equality data is " a one-stop shop for gender information, catering to a wide range of users and providing data from a variety of sources." Amongst the resources here are collections of macro- and micro-level data on topics such as control of economic assets and financial inclusion and an extensive set of gender-themed indicators that can be downloaded in bulk or queried by country, year, and indicator.

General Social Survey (GSS) -- The GSS measures public opinion in the United States on a wide variety of topics of interest to social scientists. The survey, which began in the early 1970's, provides a (nearly) biennial perspective on American attitudes toward government, race, religion, sexuality, and other social issues. The link here is to the GSS homepage within the National Opinion Research Center. Sites where researchers can extract and download specific variables of interest are listed here. The SDA Archive at Berkeley also holds GSS data from 1972 onwards in an interface that allows for basic on-line data analysis and the creation of subsets of GSS data.

National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) -- The NSFH contains data on topics such as "the respondent's family living arrangements in childhood, departures and returns to the parental home, and histories of marriage, cohabitation, education, fertility, and employment," to quote the website.There are three waves for the NSFH - 1987-1988, 1992-1994, and 2001-2003. Data are available as SPSS files. Some NSFH data are also available via the Social Science Electronic Data Library and via the ICPSR.

Pew Social and Demographic Trends -- Pew Social and Demographic Trends "studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure." They make many of their studies available for download here. Users are required to register before downloading a dataset, but registration is free. Users should also check out the resources available via the Pew Research Center homepage.

Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) -- The ICPSR's RCMD archive focuses on data related to "issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States," including topics such as health, political behavior, income/wealth, education, and crime. The surveys in the archive make use of large sample sizes or over-sampling to allow for more rigorous analyses of minority populations.

Social Justice Sexuality Project -- "The Social Justice Sexuality Project is one of the largest ever national surveys of Black, Latinx, and Asian and Pacific Islander, and multiracial lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people (...) The SJS Project is a knowledge-based study that investigates the sociopolitical experiences of this population around five themes: racial and sexual identity; spirituality and religion; mental and physical health; family formations and dynamics; civic and community engagement." Data from the survey are available via the ICPSR.

Statistical Abstract of the United States -- The Statistical Abstract contained a wealth of information on numerous socio-economic and demographic indicators for the United States. Historical data tables taken from the Statistical Abstract are available via the Internet Archive.

UN Human Development Reports (HDR) -- The HDR is an annual report from the United Nations that scores and rank countries on various indicators of "development" broadly defined. The current incarnation of the HDR provides access to both past and present reports and a variety of tools for visualization and downloading of HDR data and statistics. Data from some earlier reports are available via Carleton University's Country Indicators for Foreign Policy site.

University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP) -- The UTIP is devoted to the study and measure of income and earnings inequality throughout the globe.Their data holdings consist of several datasets measuring inequality between and within countries.

World Bank Poverty and Equity Data -- The World Bank has brought together a variety of datasets pertaining to the study of poverty, income inequality, and income distribution, along with other resources relevant for international development and economics. The many potentially-useful resources listed within this site include the World Income Inequality Database and PovcalNet. The site is part of the Bank's broader collection of poverty indicators. Other data resources are available via the Bank's "Poverty and Inequality" research program, the Bank's Data Catalog, and the Bank's Microdata Library. Be warned: the World Bank tends to change addresses for websites without warning.

Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) -- The ARDA contains many datasets pertaining to religion, such as surveys on topics such as the public's religious attitudes and practices, surveys of church leaders, and studies on the provision of social services by individual congregations. ARDA also provides geographic profiles of congregations and demographic profiles of denominations. Researchers should go to the Data Archive for a directory of the different studies available.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) -- The BRFSS was established by the Centers for Disease Control to provide data on personal behaviors that present health risks (e.g. alcohol and tobacco consumption, exercise patterns, dietary issues). The site provides both time-series data at the national and state levels for various categories of "behavioral risk" and also microdata files from which the national and state estimates are produced.

Bureau of Economic Analysis -- The BEA is an excellent source for macroeconomic data, with a focus on national accounts - GDP and its components such as income, consumption, investment, and government expenditure. It also provides much data on employment and compensation by industry. Data are available at the national and at the state and local/county levels, in annual, quarterly and (in some cases) monthly increments. Some industry-level data and balance-of-payments data are also available. See http://www.bea.gov/itable/ for direct access to the data.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) -- The BLS contains much data on employment, wages, and prices, at both the national and sub-national levels. See http://www.bls.gov/bls/proghome.htm for a topical breakdown of the BLS' data holdings, and see http://www.bls.gov/guide/geography/ for a summary of data availability by level of geography. Be warned that the website is not always easy to navigate.

Bureau of Justice Statistics -- The BJS provides a wealth of crime and criminal justice data compiled by the US government and links to available data on other government websites and includes a tool for extracting state-level and local-level data on crime rates.

Carl Klarner Dataverse -- Carl Klarner, formerly a professor at Indiana State University, has assembled various datasets on state politics, including data on outcomes of state elections, partisan control of state legislatures and executives, and state-level economic indicators that are accessible via his Dataverse. Some of Klarner's data on legislative election results are being updated by Princeton University.

CDC Wonder Population Information -- CDC Wonder includes a site that provides population estimates for different age, race, and gender groups. Users can get estimates at the national, state, or county levels, from 1990 onwards.

Census Bureau: Federal, State, and Local Governments -- The Census Bureau conducts various surveys of the finances and employment of state and local governments, covering topics such as tax revenue, employment, expeditures by function, and finances of public school systems.

Correlates of State Policy -- The Correlates of State Policy Data are a project at the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) at Michigan State University. The data are a compilation of annual, state-level data covering topics such as politics and partisanship, economics, criminal justice, demographics, policies and regulations, and health.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia - Research and Data -- The Philadelphia Fed conducts research and collects data on economic conditions within its district, including state-level indices on current economic conditions and leading economic indicators. Note that each of the district banks within the Federal Reserve system collects data and constructs indices on conditions within its district as well.

Measuring American Legislatures -- The Measuring American Legislatures project is an effort to code the ideological orientations of both state legislatures and individual state legislators. Data from the project are available via the Dataverse of Boris Shor, who is one of the project's investigators.

National Institute for Money in State Politics (NIMSP) -- NIMSP is a watchdog group with an extensive clearinghouse of data on campaign contributions, campaign expenditures, and lobbying, with a focus on elections at the state level. Bulk downloads of data are also available via http://sunlightlabs.github.io/datacommons/bulk_data.html.

Sortable Risk Factors and Health Indicators -- To quote the website, "Sortable Stats is an interactive data set comprised of behavioral risk factors and health indicators. This data set compiles state level data for the 50 states, DC, and U.S. territories from various published CDC and federal sources into a format that allows users to view, sort, and analyze data at state, regional, and national levels." BE WARNED - while the site is very accessible and easy to use, it also requires that you install and enable Microsoft Silverlight.

State Ideology Data -- The State Ideology Data, which have been assembled by Richard C. Fording at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, measure the ideological leanings of both the public and political leaders for the individual states. The data cover the years 1960 onwards.

State Profiles and Energy Estimates -- The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration produces various estimates of energy consumption and production via its State Energy Data System (SEDS). The Petroleum Navigator also provides state-level data related to petroleum consumption.

State Politics and Policy Quarterly Data Sources -- State Politics & Policy Quarterly has a Dataverse with replication datasets for articles published in the journal, covering topics such as income inequality within states and integrity of states' electoral institutions. SPPQ's Practical Researcher Data provide time-series data on political, judicial, economic, and social variables. Depending on the variable, the data coverage is from 1975 to 2006. There is also a collection of individual datasets on particular topics such as partisan balance of state governments.

U.S. Officials Job Approval Ratings (JARS) -- The U.S. Officials Job Approval Ratings page was run by Thad Beyle at UNC-Chapel Hill and contains a wealth of time-series data on job approval ratings for U.S. presidents, senators, and state governors. The copy of the site linked to here is courtesy of the Internet Archive.