Data collections
We provide access to a wide range of data from across the globe and have a team to assist you with your queries related to finding and managing research data. However, we are unable to provide support for statistical, qualitative or geographical information systems software.
Our collection contains a variety of different types of data that can be used across the social sciences. This includes:
- Country data
- Financial, Company and Market data
- Social Science data
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data
Country data
We provide access to a number of general databases that contain country level data and analysis that will be of value to researchers.
Printed Statistics
- Registrar General’s Annual Return
- UK Census 1841 – 2011 (also available through UK Data Service)
- Census of India
- League of Nations Statistical Yearbook
- United Nations Statistical Yearbook
Online statistics
Follow the links to access and read further information about each resource.
- EIU Viewpoint contains basic social and economic data.
- CEIC contains economic data globally inclusing in-depth statistics for China and India.
- Economic History Digital Collection contains digitised copies of our key primary resources of economic and government statistics.
Financial, Company and Market information
- Euromonitor International Passport is an international market research database. It is excellent for researching established, developing and emerging markets.
- Orbis has information on over 531 million companies. It enables you to identify and evaluate companies around the world.
- Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) is a business data research service from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. It provides access to Compustat, CRSP, TAQ, I/B/E/S, Eventus, and other financial data.
- S&P Capital IQ Pro provides specialist information relating to financial institutions and real estate.
- LSEG Workspace contains near real-time and historical financial information on individual equities, stock market indices, fixed-income securities, currencies, commodities, and futures for both international and domestic markets.
Certain resources can only be accessed in the Financial Resources Zone in the Group Study Room on the 4th floor of the Library. These products are only available for current LSE staff and students.
- Bloomberg contains near real-time and historical financial information on individual equities, stock market indices, fixed-income securities, currencies, commodities, and futures for both international and domestic markets.
Social science
We provide access to two of the largest repositories of social science data, which contain a range of quantitative and qualitative research data.
Text and data mining
- ProQuest TDM Studio is a platform for text and data mining across the Library's current ProQuest subscriptions. The visualization dashboard has a graphical user interface with pre-built visualisations that can be applied to newspaper content. The workbench dashboard allows analysis across the majority of the Library's ProQuest subscriptions using R and Python.
GIS
Freely available resources
A lot of data produced by national and international bodies is made freely available online as open data. Here are some useful sources of data to help with your research, some of which can also be accessed through the UK Data Service – international macro data page.
Contact the Data Library team
Contact the Data Library by email and provide as much detail as possible about your research question and data needs. Ideally you should provide us with:
- the data collection (or the kind of data collection) you are seeking
- names of the data collection(s) you have already used
Your email should be sent from your LSE account as this confirms that you are a current LSE student or member of staff. We aim to respond to enquiries within two working days.
Moodle course
The Moodle course, Library Companion for Data Resources, provides a good introduction to data resources and will help you locate material.
Conditions of use
Subscription datasets have specific licenses that must be adhered to at all times, as a breach of the terms of usage could lead to termination of the license. The general principles that apply are:
- Access is provided on the basis of non-commercial academic use.
- The copyright of the data is retained by the data owner but licensed for current LSE staff and students only.
- Data-sharing is not permitted.
- It is the responsibility of the user to ensure the security of the data and not disclose it to anyone else.
- The Conditions of Use of IT Facilities at LSE and the Information Security Policy are applicable in all cases.
- A breach of the conditions of use could result in termination of access and possible legal action.