Established in 1962, the ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) is an international consortium of more than 780 academic institutions and research organizations. It is hosted by the University of Michigan.
The ICPSR maintains the world's largest collection of digital social science data, covering topics such as sociology, political science, economics, demography, education, child care, health care, crime, minority populations, aging, terrorism, substance abuse, mental health, public policy, international relations, and more. Data are available for more than 16,000 studies, including nearly six million variables. Most data are quantitative, but qualitative datasets are available, too. ICPSR datasets are analysis-ready, available in multiple software formats, including SPSS, SAS, and Stata. Some data can be analyzed online, with no statistical software needed.
As of March 1, 2021, the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI), a consortium of academic libraries that includes University of Maryland Global Campus, joined ICPSR, giving authorized USMAI faculty, students, and staff members access to ICPSR datasets that can be used for secondary analysis, as well as to training resources and other services.
Use the menu links on the left-hand side of this guide to learn how to access and use ICPSR data.