Guides: Social Work: Data & Statistics

Data Vs Statistics: Quick Definitions

Data is the raw information statistics are created from, typically a bunch of variables and numbers
Statistics is data after it's been interpreted, it answers questions like "how many?"

US Census Data
Provides access to demographic, economic, housing, and geographic data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas from surveys and censuses. Includes the American Community Survey and Decennial Census.
National Institute of Mental Health Stats
The information on these pages includes currently available statistics on the prevalence and treatment of mental illnesses among the U.S. population.
National Center for Health FastStats
Selected statistics/data organized by topic.
Childstats.gov
Statistics from the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
Office of Homeland Security Statistics
Statistics from the OHSS, including immigration statistics.

ICPSR Direct

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research collection of social science data. First time users will be asked to create an ICPSR MyData account.

General Social Survey (NORC) Data Explorer
Contains demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest.
APA's List of Data Sets & Repositories
Huge list of data resources curated by the American Psycological Association.

Statista
Statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources, includes access to the Global Consumer Survey.

SPSS on Library Computers
All Payson library computers have old versions of SPSS for student use.
R
Free tool you can use to analyze large amounts of data with a large online community for support.

Sage Research Methods

Practical tool for access to books, journals, videos and reference material for help understanding and choosing methods, designing research projects and writing up findings.