Subject Guides: Political Science: Statistics & Data: Home

Frequently Requested Data / Statistics ..	Find in...
Democracy Indicators / Levels of Democracy	Freedom of the Word; Polity Regime Trends; Nations, Development & Democracy
Education Levels	World Development Indicators
Election Turnout / Voting Levels	Voting, Elections & Elections Data page
GDP & GNP	Global Financial Data, International Financial Statistics
GINI	World Development Indicators, Global Financial Data
Human Rights	CIRI Human Rights Data Project
Legislative Bodies	Cross National Time Series
Migration	UNDATA
Political Rebellion	Cross National TIme Series
Polls & Public Opinion	Polling Data & Public Opinion page
Population (United States)	Global Financial Data (historical and projected), Statistical Insight, Social Explorer
Population (non- United States)	Global Financial Data (historical and projected)
Roll Call Votes (US)	ICPSR

Indexes and General Data Sets

Sources for large data sets and statistical sources that cross many subject areas.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) Data Archive
Provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. For more information see Data Services for Social Sciences.

Must set up an account using BU email address to download data on ICSPR site. Code books for data available on ICSPR site. ICSPR also offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use.
Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive
NEW 2020 EDITION: Cross National Time Series Data Archive Longitudinal data series covering over 200 countries and 200 variables, including measurements for civil unrest, voting, political parties, media, trade, and regime characteristics. Covers from 1815-present, with exceptions for World Wars.

Data is available in Excel spreadsheets. Coverage: 1815 - present.
Social Explorer
Includes the entire US Decennial Census history from 1790 to 2010, all annual updates from the American Community Survey, the Religious Congregations and Membership Study from 1980 to 2000, and selected election and carbon emissions data.

Users can customize, save, print, export and email maps and reports. The site is updated three times annually. Includes only state and county data through 1930. Includes tracts 1940 to present and block groups 1980 to present. Does not include STF 1 block level data.
PolicyMap
Online GIS mapping tool that allows users to integrate over 15,000 data indicators from a variety of sources without having to download software. For help, see Policy Map: Getting Started.
Policy Map
** Due to budget cuts, this resource is to be cancelled in Fiscal Year 2020/21. Current subscription term ends 5/31/2021.

Users can also upload their own data using the My Data tool, and print, save or export maps.

UNdata
Search and download data collected by various groups across the United Nations from one interface.
Eurostat
Leading provider of high quality statistics on Europe. Allows bulk downloads.
Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site
Links to data covering conflict and conflict resolutions; environmental issues; economic, political & social science data.
PoliData: Data for Sale
Data sets broken down by legislative districts and county. Each set can be purchased individually by the user.

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The Libraries can not purchase data sets at this time from PoliData.

Global Financial Data
Provides raw financial and economic data from the year 1000 to the present. The data has been compiled from original source documents and archival sources. Read below for important information before you get started. ** Due to budget cuts, this resource is confirmed as cancelled in Fiscal Year 2020/21. Current subscription term ends 12/31/2020.

To use: Log in using BU login. Must click on SUBMIT in order to login. User must create personalized account on GFD website. Data may be downloaded into statistical software for analysis. Click on GFDatabase on left to start searching. Coverage: varies with data set; year 1000 to present.

Statistics & Census Data
Sources for local, national and international data.

Political Measurements

Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive
NEW 2020 EDITION: Cross National Time Series Data Archive Longitudinal data series covering over 200 countries and 200 variables, including measurements for civil unrest, voting, political parties, media, trade, and regime characteristics. Covers from 1815-present, with exceptions for World Wars.

Data is available in Excel spreadsheets. Coverage: 1815 - present.

Center on Democratic Performance (Binghamton University)
Contains such reports and data sets as the Presidential Human Rights Report Card, Institution and Elections Project dataset, Election Results Archive.
Freedom in the World
Countries are ranked on measures of political rights and civil liberties, and then given a designation as "free" to "not free."
Polity Regime Trends
Measures the authority characteristics of states.
Database of Political Institutions
WorldBank dataset ranking governments on a variety of factors including economic and religious orientations, number of seats held, current electoral rules and federalism levels.
Quality of Government Dataset
Compiles a wide range of freely available data on the causes, consequences, and nature of that relate to the Quality of Government (QoG).
Nations, Development, and Democracy, 1800-2005
Complies data from Polity, Freedom House and WDI for 187 countries.
Global Terrorism Database
Systematic open source database documenting international and domestic terrorist incidents.

QuotaProject: Global Database of Quotas for Women
Contains information on the use of electoral quotas for women. Electoral quotas are defined as mandatory or targeted percentages of women candidates for public elections.

Statistical Support

For help getting started: Finding Statistics and Data.
Fundamentals of Polling: Polling 101 and Analyzing Polls: Polling 201 provide information on understanding how polls are conducted and how to understand and interpret the data collected by telephone polls, exit surveys, and other large scale polls
SPSS, STATA, SAS and other packages can be found via the Virtual Desktop.

Books

Understanding political science statistics : observations and expectations in political analysis by Peter F. Galderisi
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2015
Discovering Statistics Using R by Andy Field
Call Number: HA32 .F537 2012 (Bartle)
Publication Date: 2012-04-05
Handbook of Univariate and Multivariate Data Analysis with IBM SPSS by Robert Ho
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2013

Other Statistics & Data Guides

Or view all Data & Statistics databases available at the Libraries.