Sociology: A Research Guide: US Cross-sectional and time series

The 2010 Census was a short form only census It counted all residents living in the United States and asked for name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure - it took just minutes to complete.

The more detailed socioeconomic information once collected via the long-form questionnaire is now collected by the American Community Survey. The survey provides current data about all communities every year, rather than once every 10 years. It is sent to a small percentage of the population on a rotating basis throughout the decade.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides this gateway to data from the decennial census. The site provides a range of access from packaged and searchable tables to downloadable data and GIS files.

The American Religion Data Archive (ARDA) collection includes quantitative data on churches and church membership, religious professionals, and religious groups (individuals, congregations and denominations). The web site facilitates comparisons across data files by allowing users to search data files on topics of interest, download and compare the results. Also provided are links to related sites as well as maps and reports on religious congregations and membership.

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 50,000 households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPS is the primary source of information on the labor force characteristics of the U.S. population as well as on a variety of topics including school enrollment, income, health, voting, and fertility. This government site provides search software for documents or the data.

Sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau, DataWeb provides access across the Internet to demographic, economic, environmental, health and other databases housed in different systems in different agencies and organizations. The statistics, census data and survey data are in a collection of systems and software that provide data query and extract capabilities, as well as data analysis and visualization tools, i.e., the DataFerrett.

The General Social Surveys (GSS) are designed as part of a program of social indicator research, replicating questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. This collection is a cumulative dataset that merges all data collected as part of the General Social Surveys from 1972 to the present. GSS files are available from the CISER Data Archive or ICPSR. The NORC-GSS cumulative data file 1972-2004 on CD-ROM is available in the Olin Library Stacks (HN29. N67 2005).

The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) consists of thirty-seven high-precision samples of the American population drawn from fifteen federal censuses and from the American Community Surveys of 2000-2003. It assigns uniform codes across all the samples and brings relevant documentation into a coherent form to facilitate analysis of social and economic change.