Library Guides: Sociology: Statistics

Guides to Statistics and Data

Data Sets for Quantitative Research
by Marie Concannon Last Updated Aug 7, 2024 3545 views this year
Census Data
by Marie Concannon Last Updated Mar 4, 2025 197 views this year
Government Documents by Type
by Marie Concannon Last Updated Apr 4, 2025 355 views this year

MU's Research Data Center

University of MIssouri Research Data Center
A lengthy application process and many precautions are necessary to use and merge certain types of data. These people in Ellis Library will assist.

Dissertation Example

Statistics Databases

Statistical Abstract of the United States
Comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Editions from 2013-present are available.

ICPSR
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) allows you to search studies and data it archives, as well as articles that cite that data.

Comprehensive statistical sites, mostly from the U.S. government:

data.census.gov
FEDSTATS
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Disability Statistics (Cornell University)
Housing Statistics library guide (University of California-Berkeley)
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Historical Statistics of the United States

Longitudinal Tract Data Base (LTDB) provides public-use tools to create estimates within 2010 tract boundaries for any tract-level data (from the census or other sources) that are available for prior years as early as 1970.

Statistics and Data on Sociological Topics

Corporate Interests

Little Sis
Conceived as the opposite of "Big Brother," LittleSis is a database making explicit the connections among powerful individuals in corporate, government and institutional elites.

Housing

Eviction Lab
Drawing on tens of millions of records, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University has published the first ever dataset of evictions in America, going back to 2000.
Kept Out: For People of Color, Banks are Shutting the Door to Homeownership
Analysis of 31 million records of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act records published 2/15/2018

Policing and Punishment

Mapping Police Violence
Fatal Force
Fatal Force is a database of fatal shootings by police officers, compiled from news sources by the Washington Post.
Missouri Vehicle Stops By Race Data from the Missouri Attorney General's office
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Missouri’s state law requires that all peace officers in the state report specific information including a driver’s race for each vehicle stop made in the state. Law enforcement agencies are required to turn in the data to the Attorney General, and the Attorney General is required to compile the data and report to the Governor no later than June 1 of each year. The law allows the Governor to withhold state funds for any agency that does not comply with the law.
Sentencing Project
Advocacy site with a section highlighting relevant statistics. Check ultimate sources of statistics.

Religion

American Religion Data Archive Funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., and housed at Penn State University, the ARDA collection includes denominational family trees, data on churches and church membership, religious professionals, religious groups and the public opinion on religious matters. Document types include maps, tables, graphs, survey questionnaires and learning modules.
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Date Coverage: Varies

Maximum Users: Unlimited

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Universities

Athletic & Academic Spending Database Statistics for NCAA Division I schools. Based on sports budget data reported by colleges to the NCAA, athletics participation data reported to the U.S. Department of Education, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System produced by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Social Mobility Index
How much does a college reinforce or disrupt the class status quo?