Listed below are some data sets relevant to the social sciences that are compatible with GIS analyses. This list is in no way considered exhaustive. Most of the data can be accessed at no charge, or for only a nominal fee. We provide this information with a caution to our readers that any data set can be made compatible with GIS as long as it contains some geospatial attribute such as an address, zip code, county, or region. As with any type of analytic technique it may be necessary to first do some preparation with your data before plugging it into a GIS analysis, but virtually any database can be used for this purpose. We present this list for your convenience, but readers should not feel limited to use only data sets that appear here for their own GIS projects.
United States Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html
General Social Survey http://gss.norc.org/
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/
United States Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Federal Bureau of Investigation http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
United Nations Statistics Division http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm
United States Department of Labor http://www.bls.gov/data/
Center for Disease Control http://wonder.cdc.gov/
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/whosis/en/
North American Transportation Atlas Data http://www.bts.gov/publications/north_american_transportation_atlas_data/
Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/epahome/Data.html
United States Fish and Wildlife Service http://wetlandsfws.er.usgs.gov/NWI/download.html
Federal Geographic Data Committee http://www.fgdc.gov/dataandservices
The Geography Network http://www.geographynetwork.com/data/index.html
The Odum Institute http://152.2.32.107/odum/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=7
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research http://www.icpsr.org/
Council of European Social Science Data Archives http://extweb3.nsd.uib.no/cessda/home.html
Panel Study of Income Dynamics http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/
Statistical Abstract of the United States http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
State Data Center http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/
United Kingdom Data Archive http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/
United Kingdom Government Statistics http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Center for International Earth Science Information Network http://www.ciesin.org/index.html
United States Public Elementary-Secondary School Data http://www.census.gov/govs/www/school.html
National Center for Education Statistics http://nces.ed.gov/
