Finding Data & Statistics: Political Science

Access the world's largest collection of social science research data here by searching across or browsing through one of the virtual data archives (called "dataverses") listed below. Data is uploaded by researchers from around the world.

Miscellaneous datasets housed at UC San Diego. Includes:
Data on Terrorist Suspects (DOTS)
Field (California) Poll, 1956 - [Latest Release]
International Country Risk Guide: Table 3B: Political Risk Points by Component
International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), 1968 - [most recent]
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) 1978-2003 [Repository Data]
POLIDATA Presidential Results by Congressional District (PRCD)

Registry of research data repositories

See codebook for comprehensive list of links to political science datasets on pretty much any political topic you can think of.

A database with hundreds of variables for the US and the world.

Contents: 3708 conflicts, data on parties, fatalities, date and duration.

The Correlates of War project seeks to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international relations.

The Polity project has proven its value to researchers over the years, becoming the most widely used data resource for studying regime change and the effects of regime authority

Corruption Perceptions Index
Global Corruption Barometer
Bribe Payers Index

Governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them.

Variables include: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption.

Includes roll call matrices and codebooks for Congresses starting with the first session.

Links and citation info for multiple Congressional datasets:
"Congressional Committees, 80th--102nd Congresses Garrison Nelson
Congressional Committees, Historical Standing Committees David Canon, Garrison Nelson, Charles Stewart III
Congressional Committees, Modern Standing Committees, 103rd--112th Congresses Charles Stewart III and Jonathan Woon
Candidate Quality and U.S. Senate Election Data David Lublin
Congressional District Demographic and Political Data David Lublin
Candidate Positioning Data Stephen Ansolabehere, James M. Snyder, and CharlesStewart III
Federal Elections Project David Lublin
House and Senate Party Voting Scores Joseph Cooper and Garry Young
House Committee Request Data Scott Frisch and Sean Kelly
Nominal and Adjusted Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) Voting Records, 1947-2007 Sarah Anderson (UCSB) and Philip Habel (SIUC)
Voteview Royce Carroll (Rice), James Lo (UCLA), Jeff Lewis (UCLA), Nolan McCarty (Princeton), Keith Poole (UCSD), and Howard Rosenthal (NYU).
Adjusted Interest Group Scores Timothy Groseclose (UCLA)
Jeff Lewis and Keith Poole's roll call downloads. Jeff Lewis and Keith Poole"

US election results. Coverage dates: 2004 - current

Cooperative Project of The University of Rochester, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, & George Washington University.
-State Governors 1958-2009 Database (Excel format) (updated 3/29/10)
Note: State Governors includes California Governor Davis recall support poll results.
- U.S. Senators 1978-2009 Database (Excel format)(updated 3/29/10)
- U.S. Presidents 1945-2009 Database (Excel format) (updated 3/29/10)

Collection of precinct-level results for as many U.S. elections as possible since 2000, linked to GIS boundary files of voting tabulation districts. Also visualized in the Stanford Election Atlas.

See the Blogroll for recent elections data such as
Gubernatorial Race Ratings
Senate Race Ratings
Document Collection
Presidential Vote by Legislative Districts
Presidential Vote by Congressional Districts
House Race Ratings

From the Sunlight Foundation. Select a state to start to research bills, review voting records, contact elected officials and more. Bulk data downloads are available.

Other Scholars’ Competitiveness Measures
1) the Ranney Index for approximately the 1940 to 2010 period and 2) the Holbrook and Van Dunk index for about 1970 to 2010.

State Legislative Election Returns Data, 1967-2010; 2011-2012
Also available via ICPSR (ICPSR 34297).

State Partisan Balance Data

State Economic Data

Gallup Presidential Approval and Congressional Vote Intention

Governors Dataset

From the 2012 Statistical Abstract
416 - Number of Governors by Political Party Affiliation
417 - Vote Cast for and Governor Elected by State
418 - Political Party Control of State Legislatures by Party
419 - Composition of State Legislatures by Political Party Affiliation

Measures U.S. attitudes toward social and public policy issues, economic status, political events, work, and family life. Coverage dates: 1972 - present

A variety of tools and services that allow you to visualize, explore, and export the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) project - a realtime database of global society.

The Pew Research Center is a major center for the study of public opinion and regularly conducts polls (both at home and abroad) about various social and political topics and contemporary issues. They make many of their studies available for download here. Many of the more recent data files are in SPSS format. Users are required to register before downloading a dataset, but registration is free.

The Afrobarometers are a series of surveys conducted across a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries with the intent of gathering data on social and political attitudes towards subjects such as political participation, national identity, civil society, and other such topics. The series is modelled in part after the Eurobarometer series.

A collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries and provinces include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro/electoral system variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study and cross-level analysis.

Public opinion polls conducted by the European Commission. Surveys and studies address major topics concerning European citizenship: enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defense, etc.

An academically driven cross-national survey conducted across Europe since 2001. The survey measures the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty nations. Data can be analyzed online or downloaded.

A variety of tools and services that allow you to visualize, explore, and export the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) project - a realtime database of global society.

Cross-national collaboration program that conducts annual surveys on diverse topics relevant to social sciences.

The series is designed to enable a crossnational comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. A variety of questions on religion and morality were included. Data is currently available at ICPSR for 1981-1984, 1990-1993, 1995-1997, and 1999-2004.

The 1991 National Race and Politics Survey was a nationwide telephone survey carried out by the Survey Research Center of the University of California, Berkeley. Respondents were asked questions about welfare, race relations, altruism, and members of other races.

Data on the public's use of, and attitudes toward, the Internet and traditional news outlets. Respondents are asked questions concerning their use of newspapers, television news, radio news, and news magazines.

A collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries and provinces include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro/electoral system variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study and cross-level analysis.

US election results. Coverage dates: 2004 - current

A variety of tools and services that allow you to visualize, explore, and export the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) project - a realtime database of global society.

A non-partisan research organization to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the United States. Downloadable datasets include the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Politics and Civic Participation, the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Education, and the 2002 National Survey of Latinos

The Polity project has proven its value to researchers over the years, becoming the most widely used data resource for studying regime change and the effects of regime authority

The State of the First Amendment survey collects data on Americans' attitudes towards First Amendment issues, including freedom of expression and tolerance for art that may be offensive to others.