Government Data Sources: Introduction

This guide describes how to find and use international, foreign, U.S. federal, state, and local government data sources.

Introduction

Governments at all levels produce substantial data resources, but obtaining and transforming data into a usable format for academic research can be difficult. This LibGuide highlights Stanford and open government sources for data and statistics, including the primary federal statistical agencies, (international governmental organizations (IGOs) -- forthcoming), (national statistical offices (NSOs) for foreign countries--forthcoming), and state and local open data portals.

For additional LibGuides on government data, see the University of Michigan Library Guides to Finding Statistics and Data Sets and U.S. Census and Demographic Information plus Stanford Law School's Robert Crown Law Library Guide to Empirical Legal Research.

Stanford Data Resources

Stanford University Libraries (SUL) and our coordinate libraries obtain many datasets for research and education. Here are a few popular datasets and statistical databases that are governmental in nature:

CoreLogic: property datasets that include tax assessments, building permits, transfers, and mortgage (note that coverage years differ).
ICPSR: Stanford is one of the 810 members of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, which holds a data archive of 350,000 files with social and behavior research data.
L2 voter and demographic data: demographic and voter history tables for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on a combination of voter registration and commercial data sources. Note that this dataset does not include election results, only voter demographics.
Poling and elections data from CQ Press, Gallup, Roper, and Polling the Nations, which includes U.S. and foreign poll responses.
ProQuest Statistical Insight: Provides statistical data from U.S. government publications from 1973, state and private sources from 1980, and international organizations from 1983.
Statista: infographics and reports that combine business, consumer, and government sources across a variety of topics.
Statistical Abstract of the United States (1878-2012), ProQuest Statistical Abstract of U.S. (2012-), and ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the World: comprehensive and authoritative statistics representing the social, political, and economic organization of the country, as described by the U.S. Census Bureau.