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Data and Statistics

Resources for finding and using data and statistics. This guide focuses on data for the social sciences.

Key resources

UBCs primary licensed and open data archive, shared by UBC, SFU, UVic and UNBC. Data sets include Canadian census data,  Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) from Statistics Canada (and other sources), geospatial data, as well as local, provincial, national and international data sets. Abacus includes some statistics as well as data.

Canada's national statistical agency. Publicly available data includes census data from the most recent censuses and customizable tabular data from many Statistics Canada surveys. This is the primary producer of Canadian government surveys.

Data and statistics from many branches of government, from agriculture to zoology. Includes climate data, geospatial data and economic data.

An international consortium holding microdata and statistics, covering education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. This can be an excellent source for survey data for the United States.

Canada

National Level

Economic and financial data

This federal government provides detailed information on Canadian and US trade with over 200 countries

Political Science

This database contains voting information down to the district level for federal, provincial, and territorial elections. Federal election coverage from 1874 to the most recent election.

Public Opinion

This public opinion collection covers over 90 countries, with over half a million questions, and is updated monthly.

CORA provides access to public opinion survey data collected by major survey research firms in Canada since 1970. Note: this page has instructions on how to access CORA data in ODESI.

The Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse is a repository of over 60 Ipsos Canada surveys from 2004 to 2015 that shed light on Canadian elections, culture, politics, and society. All data is open access.

Provincial level

Links to provincial and municipal open data programs across Canada.

The government of British Columbia's data portal. It includes both open and restricted data, and includes a variety of geospatial data. If there is a data set appears restricted, contact us to see if the library can obtain access.

BCStats is the official statistics branch of the provincial government, analogous to Statistics Canada but on a provincial level. This is the place to start for provincial research.

Local data

Historical data

The Canada Year Book Historical Collection 1867 to 1967: historical text, tables and maps on Canadian society, events, and the economy: population, industry, trade, immigration, labour, transportation, government, etc.

Electronic reproduction of an 1876 publication which includes 343 tables from 98 Censuses taken between 1665 and 1871. Includes data on social and economic conditions in Atlantic Canada, New France, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, and Western Canada.

Authoritative statistical and demographic statistics from 1867 to the mid-1970s. Over 1000 tables, plus detailed notes and other information.

United States

General

All of the following data sources are open access unless otherwise noted.

More than just US decennial censuses, the Census Bureau collects financial, economic and trade data. Includes microdata.

Data covering a wide variety of subjects, from agriculture to zoology. Many agencies feed their data through this portal, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

An ongoing survey which replaces the long form US census. Includes microdata

Financial data

US and international time series financial data.

Health

Health statistics and data on a large variety of health topics

Browse health data and statistics by topic, build custom tables, and find CDC publications and reports.

Labour

Access to the major economic indicators for the U.S.: labor force statistics, the American Time Use Survey, prices and living conditions, compensation, productivity and technology, regional data, inflation rates, pay and benefits.

Nationally representative surveys that follow the same sample of individuals from specific birth cohorts over time. The surveys collect data on labor market activity, schooling, fertility, program participation, health, and more.

Public Opinion

A large collection of public opinion polls from United States and international sources. 

Historical

Source for US statistical indicators from colonial times to the present.

World

Global coverage

General

Selected statistics from the entire UN system. Summary tables cover agriculture, population, industry, national accounts, energy, health, human development, trade, refugees, education, employment, and technology.

Multiple data sets, including World Development Indicators. Many financial, economic, natural resource and social data sets.

Statistics and data for member and non member countries can be found in the "Statistics" section. Topics include: g trade, education, labour, social policy, health, finance, development, energy, environment, and science and innovation.

Labour

Provides annual labour market statistics for over 100 indicators and nearly 230 countries, areas, and territories. The Yearly indicators dataset contains standardized indicators for purposes of greater comparability across countries. The Short term indicators dataset contains monthly, quarterly and half-year data and is updated on a monthly basis.

Trade

Detailed trade statistics from 170 countries: imports, exports, trading partners, and commodities from 1962 onwards.

Harvard Growth Lab’s research and data visualization tool used to understand the economic dynamics and new growth opportunities for every country worldwide. The most recent goods, services, complexity and network data that drives the Atlas can be downloaded.

Political Science

The International Country Risk Guide produced by The PRS Group is a commercial source of country risk analysis and ratings. The Researcher's Datasets include political, economic, financial, and composite risk ratings for 140 countries from 1984-2020, in Excel format.

Financial

Multiple financial data sets including international financial statistics, trade data sets, balance of payments and government finance statistics

Climate

Climate data from many sources and of multiple types
 

Country level data

More than 345,000 time-series of Chinese macroeconomic, industry sector, and regional data. Users can explore the data, create graphs, and export selected datasets.

Census data and statistics from China's statistical agencies

Statistical information on European Union member countries

CDs and DVDs with data are available from the Library