Monitoring Minnesota’s Changing Landscapes Research of the University of Minnesota’s Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory. From the home page: This website provides a series of maps and statistics about land cover, impervious surface area and landscape change, derived from satellite imagery, in Minnesota from 1986 to the present. Accurate and consistent information about land…
StateMaster – US Statistics, State Comparisons For those of you who, like me, are already big fans of NationMaster, now there is an analogous tool for comparative U.S. state statistics. Their summary says it all: “Welcome to StateMaster, a unique statistical database which allows you to research and compare a multitude of different data on…
Constitution Finder This excellent resource from the University of Richmond offers access to the current (and sometimes historical) constitutions of over 200 countries in the original language and English translation. This database offers constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents. Nations of the world are linked to their constitutional text posted somewhere on the Internet.
Micah Altman and Gary King have written a paper on the lack of standards for reliably citing, accessing, and finding quantitative data. The paper, entitled “A Proposed Standard for the Scholarly Citation of Quantitative Data,” can be read here, but first read this post that sets up the problem nicely.
Exploring Data Through Research Literature EDRL is a learning module that uses ICPSR’s Bibliography of Data-Related Literature to teach students about the relationships between datasets, their authors, and the community of scholarship in which they emerge.
Investigating Community and Social Capital “An instructional site that teaches data analysis of social capital, as discussed in Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone.” (quoted from home page) Five exercises that use major sources of Putnam’s data (the General Social Survey and other life style surveys) help students develop data analysis skills. This rich site includes…
The dataset for the Fractionalization article cited below can be downloaded in Excel format from Romain Wacziarg’s web site (scroll down the page — it’s listed under the journal articles). Alesina, Alberto et. al. “Fractionalization.” Journal of Economic Growth, vol. 8, no. 2, June 2003, pp. 155-194. What: measures of ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization…
Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence Primary Investigators: Inglehart, Ronald & Christian Welzel, 2005 Sources: Most of the variables in the second half come from the World Values Survey. Other sources include the World Bank, UNDP, Encyclopedia Britannica, CIA World Factbook, Human Development Report, Polity IV, Freedom House, and the Global Civic…
Some of the best places to start when you don’t know where to start (e.g., you find yourself asking, who collects international education statistics?). Word of Caution: In general, I don’t recommend using these as a final source. Rather, use these as a way to identify the “standard” source of a particular measure, then go…
The following are five different ways to find statistics published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD Statistics Portal This portal provides free access to seven OECD databases and selections from all others to the public. Browse statistics by topic or by country. OECD Factbook 2006 This compendium of statistics collected by the…