Library: Social & Policy Sciences: Statistics & Data

General resources for finding statistical data

Off-campus access: please register with your University email address. You will need to re-register every 120 days.

Data Citation Index
Multidisciplinary index of datasets and other documents; some records include links to full datasets

data.gov.uk
UK social and economic data provided by the Government and other public bodies.
Eurostat
Gapminder Tools
Graphs of global social, health and economic data.
Coverage includes life expectancy, average income, poverty rates, smoking prevalence, alcohol consumption, death rates, government shares of health spending, economic growth, numbers of internet users, imports of goods/services, imports/exports, trade balances and self-employment.
You can control graphs to compare data between specific countries over a period of time - click on 'visualize' to view these.
IEEE DataPort
Whilst DataPort provides datasets that are mostly relevant to computing and engineering topics, it also covers social sciences.
You will need to have an IEEE login to view and download datasets.

Office for National Statistics
UK and local coverage of social and economic data.

Reusable social science and interdisciplinary datasets
Guide to finding and reusing a wide range of datasets for social science and interdisciplinary research.

UK Data Service
UK & global coverage: social and economic data (including longitudinal data).
Coverage includes the British Crime Survey, British Household Panel Survey, General Household Survey, Labour Force Survey and the World Bank's data.
Further content includes the British Cohort Study, International Social Survey Programme, Millennium Cohort Study, National Statistics Time Series and statistics from the IMF and IEA (International Energy Agency).
To access some data, you need to log in/register with UK Data Service. Some datasets restrict access e.g. where commercial usage might be sought, permission could be required or sponsoring organisations may vet publications.

Office for National Statistics: Census
Guides to accessing/requesting current and previous UK census data. Note: censuses have been published every 10 years since 1801 with the exception of 1941.
UK Data Service: Census
Microdata, and aggregate, boundary and flow data, drawn from UK census returns. Coverage: mostly 1981 onwards (some 1961+). For definitions of these categories, refer to the following guide:
A Vision of Britain: Census Reports
Pre-1971 census reports: abstracts 1801-41, preliminary Reports 1851-1961, England and Wales General Reports 1871-1921.

Social History Archive This link opens in a new window
Social records such as the 1921 census and birth/marriage/death records (also provides British and Irish newspapers from 1700 onwards).

OECD
Data (including indicators and analysis), journals, working papers, factbooks and interactive databases.
World Bank Open Data
Includes representations of data in map, chart and graph formats.

ILOSTAT
Labour data and country profiles provided by the International Labour Organization. Can also find data related to specific sustainable development goals.
Nomis: Data Sources
UK data covering employment, earnings, welfare and regional accounts (disposable income). Some content is viewable by country, region, local authority or postcode. Search by postcode/authority at https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/

The Global Health Observatory
Provided by the World Health Organization: statistics by theme or country; indicators; and compilations of statistics in the publications section
NHS Digital
Statistics and other information about England's health and social care system

Office of Health Economics: healthcare statistics and data
Demographic/mortality/morbidity statistics across Europe and OECD countries, and NHS statistics (expenditure, health services, hospitals, workforce).

Reusable health & medicine datasets
Guide to finding and reusing a wide range of datasets for health research.

GlobalData: Packaging Intelligence Center [NOTE: only available until 30 JULY]
Coverage: reports, news, forecasts and data on industries and markets; provided at the level of individual sectors, countries, companies and products.
Data/analytics include macroeconomics, pricing, advertising, packaging, consumers, social media influence, patents, cybersecurity and geopolitics. Sectors include tobacco, beverages, food, healthcare, clothing, electricals and others. To contact the helpdesk, click the down arrow in the top menu (next to the green search button).

Only available until 30 July 2025.

Global Barometer Surveys (GBS)
Public survey data across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Afrobarometer
African public survey data, organised by country and topic.
Arab Barometer
North African and the Middle Eastern public survey data: its country reports provide further statistics.
European Social Survey (ESS)
Attitudes, values and behaviours relating to Europe's institutions.
Latinobarómetro
Latin American public opinion survey and annual reports - to change the language, click on the English/Espagnol tab. Statistics are available via Data Bank, Documents and Publications tabs. You can also conduct simple online analyses of statistics.