Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.

Finding Data for an Assignment: A Few Data Sources

Tips and sources for finding clean, well-documented data.

Key

When seeking data for a class project, data from established repositories can often be your best option for clean, well-curated data. If assignments specifically require you to "clean" data, though, you may need to locate data "in the wild".

The sources on this page mainly provide clean, well-documented datasets.

=========================

Advice on Finding Data slides
If you missed class or want a review, here are the slides Michele presented.

Government Sources

National Center for Education Statistics:
Elementary/Secondary Information System (ElSi)
(Not available through the Online Codebook) An NCES web application that allows users to quickly view public and private school data and create custom tables and charts using data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and Private School Survey (PSS).
ElSi utilizes variables that are frequently requested by users for producing tables. It is a fast, easy way to obtain basic statistical data on U.S. schools. Use the Table Generator tool to choose row variables, column variables and filters to refine the data included in tables produced. Exports available in .csv and .xls formats.
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
(Not available through the Online Codebook) The IPEDS Data Tools present results from annual inter-related surveys of every college, university, and technical/vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs (Title IV-eligible institutions). For a thorough introduction, look for the Overview of IPEDS Data link under the Resources heading.

Tools to Download Other Federal Data:

Social Explorer
Easiest tool for downloading current and historical (to 1790!) U.S. Census data. Also includes health, crime, and other datasets.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
PolicyMap
Provides data from a wide variety of government (and some private) sources. Note: privately sourced data are licensed by PolicyMap and cannot be downloaded.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Academic Sources

ICPSR
The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a repository of academic and other research in the social and health sciences. UNC is a member institution giving UNC affiliates access to re-use deposited datasets and to deposit their own work. First-time users must create an account from on campus in order to download data.

Thematic Collections include:
- Child Care and Early Education Research Connections
- Civic Learning, Engagement & Action Data Sharing
- The Education Research Data Sharing Initiative
- Measures of Effective Teaching Longitudinal Database
- NCAA Student-Athlete Experiences Data Archive
- Open Data Flint, and
- Resource Center for Minority Data.

These Thematic Data Collections are linked in the Find Data menu near the top of the page. Many other types of data are also available in addition to these, from government data to news polls.

See the Libraries' ICPSR guide for more information.
IPUMS microdata
Ideal for obtaining extremely large datasets, IPUMS is a project of the Minnesota Population Center. Microdata are household-level responses to surveys or censuses. Instead of aggregated data which present results for larger geographies like towns or counties, microdata include thousands or tens of thousands of responses for even smaller towns. IPUMS datasets cover a wide range of topics from time-use to health to international censuses.
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
A longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of over 20,000 adolescents who were in grades 7-12 during the 1994-95 school year, and have been followed for five waves to date, most recently in 2016-18. Over the years, Add Health has collected rich demographic, social, familial, socioeconomic, behavioral, psychosocial, cognitive, and health survey data from participants and their parents; a vast array of contextual data from participants’ schools, neighborhoods, and geographies of residence; and in-home physical and biological data from participants, including genetic markers, blood-based assays, anthropometric measures, and medications. Ancillary studies have added even more data over the years.

Roper Center's iPoll
Offers extensive database of opinion poll datasets. Roper’s iPOLL allows searching at the question level. The Center archives national opinion polls back to 1935, both U.S. and some international polls. Holdings include survey results data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, ABC, CBS, Wall Street Journal and many more. Many datasets are available for instant download in ASCII or SPSS format. Datasets not available for immediate download may be requested from the Center to be queued for digitization.

NOTE: First time users to NEW Roper iPoll need to self-register for access at login. Your credentials from Classic iPOLL will NOT work without new registration as of 8/14/2020. Classic iPOLL will no longer be updated after Sept 1, 2020.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1935 -

Associations/Non-profits/NGOs

Resources are provided below to help you identify associations related to your field of interest. Some may offer data on their web sites at no charge.

Many associations only make data available to members, but it doesn't hurt to ask for access. Emphasize that your project is for academic research, or ask a data librarian to inquire on your behalf. This may take time, though, so works best for doctoral-level projects when you can start early and also wait a good while.

Datasets obtained from associations will vary in quality, both in terms of documentation and how "clean" they are.

To identify U.S. Organizations: Encyclopedia of Associations (online)
Publication Date: Possible to search across multiple editions

This is an e-book. It is possible to search in both the National Organizations of the U.S., and the Regional, State and Local Organizations volumes.
To identify International Organizations: Encyclopedia of Associations. International organizations.
Publication Date: This is a digitized print book--most recent year available is 2003.

Full text online temporarily available to UNC-Chapel Hill affiliates. Simultaneous access is limited.

IGOs

World Development Indicators (WDI Online)
Statistics on development indicators back to 1960 from the World Bank. Time series data cover demographic, social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental topics for more than 200 countries and geographic and political groupings of countries. Data are updated quarterly. Access through the online dataBank, or in Excel or CSV formats.
Access: No restrictions.
Coverage: 1960 - present, updated quarterly.
UNdata
Provides simultaneous access to 14 statistical databases from the United Nations and other international organizations through one interface. Areas of coverage include agriculture, education, energy, industry, labor, national accounts, population, tourism and trade. Includes Millennium Development Goals indicators, and UN Key Global Indicators.
Access: No restrictions.

OECD Data
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. Our goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all...[W]e work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, we provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.

If you don't see what you need...

..see the Get Help page to contact a data librarian.