LibGuides: ECHS 3066: Research Seminar in Economic History: Data and Statistics

Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking for Data Sources

Who? Who might be interested in and able to collect the data you would like to find? That is, who might have an interest in the subject matter as well as the material support and expertise to conduct the data collection? Who might be required to make it publicly available? Who might be willing to share it voluntarily?
- Which of these data collectors do you think will provide you the data that you need at no cost?
  - Government agencies
  - Inter-governmental organizations
  - Non-governmental organizations/non-profit organizations
  - Academic researchers
  - Think tanks/policy institutes
  - Community organizations
  - Private companies
When? Are you looking for current or historical data? Historical data from the same organization might be stored in a different database or data repository than current data. Older data and statistics might be only available in print form.
Where? At what geographic level are you interested in studying - neighborhood, city, county, state, region, country, continent, world? What organizations or individuals might collect and share data at that geographic level?

United States economic data and statistics

ALFRED (Archival Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Allows you to retrieve vintage versions of economic data that were available on specific dates in history.
data.census.gov
This is the new platform for accessing recent Census Bureau data. FYI, the Census Bureau stopped releasing new data in American FactFinder (AFF) at the end of June 2019 and transitioned to data.census.gov for data releases formerly on AFF.
data.gov
Browse data sets by topic, or search the data catalog. You can limit your results to geospatial data sets. Federal and non-federal (state, county, municipal, etc.) data sources are available.
Data Sources from American Economic Association (AEA)
Links to some of the most useful and popular economics data sources, categorized by data type
Eh.Net databases recommendations
This site lists a number of possible data sets which may be relevant to this course.
FRASER
FRASER is a collection of scanned historical documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (St. Louis Fed). Some historical statistics that are not available in FRED may be found in FRASER.
FRED
FRED (from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis/St. Louis Fed) compiles macro data from a variety of government and other sources. FRED is a database of over 383,000 economic time series from 82 sources. You can download data in Microsoft Excel and text formats and view charts of data series.
General Social Survey (GSS)
General Social Survey (GSS) contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings.
GeoFRED
GeoFRED alows you to create, customize, and share geographical maps of data found in FRED.
GRID - Global Repository of Income Dynamics
The Global Repository of Income Dynamics—GRID—is an open-access international database that provides a wealth of micro statistics on income inequality and income dynamics at the individual level. All statistics in the database have been computed from administrative records data on earnings histories from each country and harmonized for comparability. As of Nov. 2022, there are 13 countries in GRID: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The plan is to expand the coverage of GRID to 25+ countries in the very near future.

Historical Statistics of the United States
A compendium of quantitative data series covering areas ranging from the demographic trends and characteristics (in volume A) to government revenues and outlays by level and international trade and finance (in volume E).

Historicalstatistics.org: Portal for Historical Statistics
This is a portal for historical statistics, macro and micro, of a number of countries including the U.S.
IPUMS USA
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) provides demographic and historical research using U.S. Census microdata. They do request that you "Use it for GOOD -- never for EVIL".
National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides population, housing, agricultural, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for geographic units in the United States from 1790 to the present.
NHGIS Data Finder
This features source tables, time series tables, and GIS boundary files for spatial analysis applications. Using NHGIS: An Introductory Guide is a very good place to start!

PolicyMap
Online data and mapping tool for creating custom reports of data related to demographics, real estate, health, jobs, the environment, education and more. Data comes from authoritative public and proprietary sources. It has thousands of indicators on demographics, the economy, housing, lending, quality of life, education, health, and more. Data is available at the neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, depending on the data.

Prices and Wages by Decade
This guide, managed by Marie Concannon of the University of Missouri Library's Government Information Department, points to consumer prices and wages reported in primary sources for each decade back to the 1700s. Whenever possible, they refer to retail price and wage averages as reported in government publications. When those are not available, they use figures listed in other contemporary sources such as commercial catalogs, travel guides and newspapers. This site is based on freely available historic resources, mostly from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRASER® digital library and the HathiTrust Digital Library. To understand the value of a historic price or wage in current dollars, they recommend the website MeasuringWorth.com.

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States
The Statistical Abstract of the United States is an authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. Once provided free from the U.S. Census Bureau, now provided by ProQuest.
Social Explorer
Helps you visually analyze and understand demographic, election, health, environment and other data through the use of interactive maps and data reports.
Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL)
The Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL) is an extensive health and social science resource that consists of nine topically focused data archives. The data studies in each archive are suitable for use with statistical software and each consists of one or more data files, related documentation, and SAS and SPSS program statement files.

Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas
Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas visualizes Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s transformations during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Drawing on 1850, 1880, and 1910 census data, it shows how migration, residential, and occupational patterns shaped the city. The Digital Atlas breaks new ground by locating each person counted in the Census at their home address, sometimes before the street grid was even established. This is a living project that will expand to include all five boroughs up to the 1940 census.
U.S Economic Indicators
Prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers for the Joint Economic Committee, provide economic information on gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, Federal finance, and international statistics.

International economic data and statistics

Afrobarometer
Afrobarometer is non-partisan, pan-African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy and society in 30+ countries repeated on a regular cycle. A leading source of high-quality data on what Africans are thinking.
AmericasBarometer
The AmericasBarometer, LAPOP’s largest survey research project, is a periodic study of 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere, with stratified nationally representative samples drawn in each country, a common questionnaire core, and country-specific modules. It is the only scientifically rigorous comparative survey of democratic values and behaviors that covers all independent countries in North, Central, and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean. The AmericasBarometer measures attitudes, evaluations, experiences, and behavior in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults. Standardizing methods and a common core questionnaire permit valid comparisons across countries and over time on topics including the economy, rule of law, state capacity, trust in institutions, individual values, corruption, security, and more. The AmericasBarometer was launched in 2004/05, with 11 countries, and quickly grew to cover 34 countries in the Americas. The latest round of the AmericasBarometer was carried out in 2021 and includes over 64,000 interviews in 22 countries.
Arab Barometer
Arab Barometer is a nonpartisan research network that provides insight into the social, political, and economic attitudes and values of ordinary citizens across the Arab world. We have been conducting high quality and reliable public opinion surveys in the Middle East and North Africa since 2006. We are the longest-standing and the largest repository of publicly available data on the views of men and women in the MENA region. Our findings give a voice to the needs and concerns of Arab publics.
Asian Barometer
AsianBarometer represents the largest ever, comparative survey in Asia, covering East, Southeast, South and Central Asia. It focuses on daily lives of ordinary people (bumi putra) and their relationships to family, neighborhood, workplace, social and political institutions and market place. Country-wide face-to-face surveys use standardized instruments designed around a common research framework.
Clio Infra
Clio Infra provides a number of interconnected databases containing worldwide data on social, economic, and institutional indicators for the past five centuries, with special attention to the past 200 years. These indicators allow research into long-term development of worldwide economic growth and inequality. The collected data have been standardized, harmonized, and stored for future use. New indicators to study inequality have been developed. The datasets are accessible through the Clio Infra portal which also offers possibilities for visualization of the data.
Data Sources from American Economic Association (AEA)
Links to some of the most useful and popular economics data sources, categorized by data type
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program Data
DHS are nationally-representative household surveys that provide data for a wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators in the areas of population, health, and nutrition. You can find data on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Step-by-step guidelines for dataset users from registration to dataset analysis are available. Datasets are available for free after a simple registration process.

EIU Viewpoint
EIU Viewpoint presents a global outlook with daily insights spanning politics, economics and market-moving topics including macroeconomic data on forecasts, as well as historic trends, including: country forecasts--nearly 200 countries' political and economic landscapes, nearly 80 major economies and industry and commodity analysis for six major industries in nearly 70 markets, including supply, demand and prices of 40 critical goods.

Eurobarometer
The Standard Eurobarometer was established in 1974. Each survey consists of approximately 1000 face-to-face interviews per country. Reports are published twice yearly. Special Eurobarometer reports are based on in-depth thematic studies. Flash Eurobarometers are ad hoc thematic telephone interviews conducted at the request of any service of the European Commission.
Eurostat
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union.
Gapminder
Gapminder aims to provide resources for better understanding data on poverty - including graphs, quizzes, videos, photos, and human interest stories.

Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices
Global Financial Data
GFD (Global Financial Data) is a collection of historical financial and economic data covering 200 countries.

Global Findex Database
This is the world’s most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Launched with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the database has been published every three years since 2011. The data are collected in partnership with Gallup, Inc., through nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults in over 140 economies. The 2017 edition includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. And it adds new data on the use of financial technology (fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the internet to conduct financial transactions.
GRID - Global Repository of Income Dynamics
The Global Repository of Income Dynamics—GRID—is an open-access international database that provides a wealth of micro statistics on income inequality and income dynamics at the individual level. All statistics in the database have been computed from administrative records data on earnings histories from each country and harmonized for comparability. As of Nov. 2022, there are 13 countries in GRID: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The plan is to expand the coverage of GRID to 25+ countries in the very near future.
ILOSTAT
Employment & labor migration statistics from the International Labour Office (ILO)
Features: Create your own table from available data sets (select variables); Exportable into CSV format

International Financial Statistics Online
International Financial Statistics (IFS) is available from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) eLibrary. To access IFS, select "Series", then select "International Financial Statistics". Contains data from 1947 to the present.

International Historical Statistics
ISBN: 9781137305688
International Historical Statistics (IHS) is a unique collection of statistics covering a wide range of economic and social issues. Provides key economic and social indicators for the last 260 years, serving as an essential reference source.

Latinobarómetro
Latinobarómetro is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants.
Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)
This is a household survey program housed within the Survey Unit of the World Bank's Development Data Group that provides technical assistance to national statistical offices (NSOs) in the design and implementation of multi-topic household surveys. LSMS surveys have been conducted in dozens of countries around the world. The LSMS website hosts many of these surveys - for others, they provide links to the websites of the relevant national statistics offices.
Migration Data Hub
International & U.S. immigration statistics from the Migration Policy Institute, independent think tank in Washington, DC.
MoxLAD (Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Database)
The Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Economic History Database "MOxLAD" provides statistical series for a wide range of economic and social indicators covering the Latin American countries for the period 1870-2010.
Monthly Bulletin of Statistics
From the United Nations Statistics Division, the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics Online presents current economic and social statistics for more than 200 countries and territories of the world. It contains 55 tables, comprising over 100 indicators, of monthly, quarterly and annual data on a variety of subjects illustrating important economic trends and developments, including population, industrial production indices, price indices, employment and earnings, energy, manufacturing, transport, construction, international merchandise trade, finance and national accounts.

OECD iLibrary
This is the online publications portal of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Our World in Data
Free, open-source global issues data such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality indicators. Our World in data is an online scientific publication that works on making progress against the world’s largest problems by providing research and data about it. The publication is a collaborative efforts between researchers of University of Oxford and non-profit organization Global Change Data Lab.
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world, starting in 1968 with a nationally representative sample of over 18,000 individuals living in 5,000 families in the United States. Information on these individuals and their descendants has been collected continuously, including data covering employment, income, wealth, expenditures, health, marriage, childbearing, child development, philanthropy, education, and numerous other topics.
Prices and Wages by Decade
This guide, managed by Marie Concannon of the University of Missouri Library's Government Information Department, points to consumer prices and wages reported in primary sources for each decade back to the 1700s. Whenever possible, they refer to retail price and wage averages as reported in government publications. When those are not available, they use figures listed in other contemporary sources such as commercial catalogs, travel guides and newspapers. This site is based on freely available historic resources, mostly from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRASER® digital library and the HathiTrust Digital Library. To understand the value of a historic price or wage in current dollars, they recommend the website MeasuringWorth.com.
UN Data
UN Data provides statistical time series for countries from around the world covering a wide range of economic and socio-demographic topics. It includes descriptions of the international sources and definitions used in compiling the data.
World Bank DataBank
The DataBank is a compilation of a number of World Bank data products, the most significant one being World Development Indicators. It includes time series data from as early as 1960.
World Development Indicators (WDI)
World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank’s premier compilation of cross-country comparable data on development. The World Development Indicators is a compilation of relevant, high-quality, and internationally comparable statistics about global development and the fight against poverty. The database contains 1,600 time series indicators for 217 economies and more than 40 country groups, with data for many indicators going back more than 50 years.

Open Data Portals

What are open data portals?

Some government entities make their data available to the public using open data portals. These portals may contain geospatial data sets to download.

How to find open data portal

You can search for these in your favorite internet search engine - try searching for the name of the place and "open data" or "open data portal".
DataPortals.org claims to be the most comprehensive list of open data portals in the world. It is curated by a group of leading open data experts from around the world - including representatives from local, regional and national governments, international organisations such as the World Bank, and numerous NGOs.

Barriers to open data portals

Open Knowledge International notes three major environmental constraints that cintribute to a lack of openness in government data sharing:

"1. Lack of capacity of government to maintain infrastructure and websites; incomplete and inaccessible published official information.
2. Limited open data knowledge from the respective government officials.
3. Limited capacity and open data knowledge of CSOs to take advantage or to ask for open data."

Some examples of open data portals

Data archives

Harvard Dataverse
Housed at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard, this claims to host the world's largest collection of social science research. It holds data from many researchers and institutions in addition to Harvard.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR is one of the largest repositories for social science data in the world. Among the many topics covered, you will find statistics on crime, education, demographics, elections, religion, and much more.

ECHS 3066: Research Seminar in Economic History

Empirical Reasoning Center (ERC)

More data & statistics!

Jennie Correia, Social Sciences Librarian

Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking for Data Sources

United States economic data and statistics

International economic data and statistics

Open Data Portals

Data archives