Research Guides: Social Work: Data for Social Work

Open/Free Data Sites

Data.gov
Data.gov is the homepage for the U.S. Government's open data. You will find Federal, state, and local data along with tools are other resources for using this open data.
HealthData.gov
Data sets from U.S. Health and Human Services agencies like Administration for Children and Families, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse and others. Also includes some state health data.
Michigan's Open Data Portal
Public data on Michigan schools, adult foster homes, Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange foster care information and other data sets.
Detroit Open Data
A portal of data on the city of Detroit which includes reported crimes, locations of police stations, Detroit schools data among other data sets.
U.S. Census Data site
Provides U.S. Census data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. Data is included from several different censuses and surveys and can be downloaded.
Kids Count Data Center
A project from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Kids Count data includes national, state and some city data measuring demographics, economic well-being, education, family, health and safe/risky behavior in children and families.
National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP)
In collaboration with the Urban Institute and various local cities this group develops neighborhood level information for local policy and community building.
Data Driven Detroit
Data Driven Detroit (D3) was one of the first cities to join NNIP to help track neighborhood level conditions in the city of Detroit.
National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect
An archive of various data sets on child abuse and neglect.
OpenICPSR
This spin-off of ICPSR provides a cheaper, easier place for researchers to archive, store and share their data. All data included in OpenICPSR is free for public use.
"Awesome Public Datasets"
A list of data sets collected on GitHub by Chinese scholar Xiaming Chen.
Journal of Open Psychology Data
This psychology journal, started in 2013 features peer-reviewed papers which describe open psychology datasets. Some of these data may also be useful for social work research.

International Data

Guttmacher Institute
Data on sexual and reproductive health. Data sets are from the Guttmacher Center for Population Research Innovation and Dissemination. Both U.S. and international data is available.
OECD Data
Provides data from the 34 OECD member countries which are countries committed to democracy and to improving their economies. Data on other nations is also available on this site.
Quandl
An open platform where anyone can buy, sell, store or share data. Quandl specializes in economic and financial data but also includes data sets related to education, health, housing, agriculture and topic areas.
Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data)
This database allows you to search for international repositories which have archived data sets. Some are open to use while others are restricted.
United Nations
You can find official statistics produced by countries and compiled by United Nations data system, as well as estimates and projections. The domains covered are agriculture, education, energy, industry, labour, national accounts, population and tourism. You can also find indicators such as Millennium Development Goals.
World Bank - World Development Indicators
The World Development Indicators (WDI) provides a comprehensive selection of economic, social and environmental indicators, drawing on data from the World Bank and more than 30 partner agencies. The database covers more than 900 indicators for 210 economies with data back to 1960. Specific series and countries/groups can be selected for specific year ranges, and data can be exported.
World Health Organization
An agency affiliated with the United Nations, The World Health Organization web site provides downloadable international health data.

Data Available from University of Michigan

Data Citation Index
A library subscription database that indexes information on data sets from over 69 data repositories. An excellent resource for discovering data sets used by other researchers.
ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) member institutions have access to the world's largest archive of computerized, numeric social science data which covers demography, economics, health care, politics, social behavior and public opinion.
ProQuest International Data Sets
A collection of public and private data sets from national governments, international organizations, and research firms.
Sage Data
Provides downloadable U.S. government data, data from private companies and intergovernmental organizations.
SimplyMap
Provides downloadable data from the U.S. Census as well as health data, crime data, and consumer data.
Social Explorer
Simple interface which provides data from the U.S. Decennial Censuses since 1790 and all American Community Survey results. It also includes data on religion for every county and state in the U.S.
Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL)
Access is available to University of Michigan affiliated users to more than 600 data sets which cover a wide range of social work related topics such as aging, adolescent pregnancy, child well-being and poverty and maternal drug abuse.
Statista
Downloadable data from government sources, industry, marketing and trade groups.

Searching Google for Open Data

Start by searching all web sites that end with the government domain .gov. Include the word data then add any other word that will help define the type of data you're looking for, ex.: site:.gov data domestic violence. Use the Google search box below to complete your search from this guide.

Search nonprofits NGOs for data by searching web sites using the .org domain. Here's an example search - site:.org data HIV

Google Labs also offers Google Public Data Explorer which provides access to a number of open international data sets along with ways to visualize this data as charts and maps.

Other Library Research Guides on Data

Here are some other Library Research Guides created by other librarians on finding and using data.

Data Visualization Tools

Digital Research Tools Directory
A directory of digital research tools to help you find, compare and evaluate tools for sharing, archiving, organizing, publishing, and visualizing data.
Google Charts
Create interactive charts and data tools. See their chart gallery for examples.
Piktochart
Create infographic charts, presentations, and reports using free templates. More options are available for a fee of $29/month.
Easel.ly
A free tool for creating graphics and charts.
Canva
Another free project app that lets you design impressive graphics and infographs for posters, presentations and the web. For more options you'll have pay for the pro version of this tool.

University of Michigan Library

University of Michigan Library - Research Data Services
Get help with developing a data management plan, finding data, visualizing data, developing metadata and other services.