Library Guides: U.S. Domestic Policy Research: Data and Statistics

Standouts

These commonly used sources offer high-quality information that might be just what you need.

United States Census
Official demographic information about the United States from surveys including the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), American Community Survey, (ACS), and Decennial Census. Visit data.census.gov for another way to access data.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Data and Statistics
This U.S. government agency provides data and information about many important topics including disability, diabetes, child abuse and neglect, cancer, pregnancy, wildfire smoke, and more.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Data Tools
Official measures of labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the U.S. economy.
ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
A data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences collected through an international consortium of more than 750 academic institutions and research organizations. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.ICPSR is hosted by the University of Michigan.

The General Social Survey (GSS) Data Explorer
One of the most frequently analyzed sources of information in the social sciences. The GSS is a publicly available national project of NORC at the University of Chicago, with principal funding from the National Science Foundation.
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
By pairing the research rigor of NORC at the University of Chicago with the journalistic independence and global media reach of The Associated Press, The AP-NORC Center gathers, analyzes, and disseminates data to inform public policy debates as they are taking place.
American National Election Studies (ANES)
A source for survey data on voting, public opinion, and political participation. ANES conducts these studies to serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists.
Pew Research Center
Nonpartisan fact tank for public issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America. Pew conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
Kaiser Family Foundation - Polling
A nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. KFF develops and runs its own policy analysis, journalism and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with major news organizations.
CBS News Polls
Relatively small independent polls of the American public conducted by phone calls by the news organization CBS

Learn more about public opinion polling:

Polling the Public
This is a chapter from American Government and Politics in the Information Age by University of Minnesota. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
GSS Video Series
Learn more about how the General Social Survey (GSS) data is collected and how to find what you need on the GSS Data Explorer website in this playlist of videos.

U.S. Federal Documents and Data
A detailed guide to U.S. federal government resources, created by a Northwestern University librarian.
Illinois State Government Documents and Data
A detailed guide to resources and data from the state of Illinois, created by a Northwestern University librarian.
Chicago Government Documents and Data
A detailed guide to resources and data available from the city of Chicago, created by a Northwestern University librarian.

Social Science Data Resources
A detailed guide with hundreds of possible sources for many areas of potential research including religion, education, children and families, migration and refugees, COVID-19, and more. Created by Northwestern University librarians.