History Research

Data & Genealogy

Scholarly resources in all areas of historical research at Boston College

More Data Resources

The databases listed here are just the beginning of our statistical and spatial data collections. See the Data/Statistics/GIS Portal for a more complete list.

Digital Scholarship

The term 'digital humanities' implies the application of new technology to various humanities disciplines, especially to aid in new directions of research or to add new speed, accuracy, or collaboration not otherwise possible.

It can include analysis across a large corpus of text, application of geographic information systems to a set of data, visualization techniques to illustrate material in a new way, or many other possible tools and practices.

The Libraries' Digital Scholarship group is tasked with exploring and supporting this work at Boston College.

Genealogy

Ancestry Library Edition
With 7 billion genealogical records from across the globe and millions of family trees, this is the world’s largest online family history resource.

Data and Statistics for the US

American FactFinder
Population, housing, and income data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Historical Census Browser
Visualized data drawn from the U.S. Census, 1790–1960.

Historical Statistics of the United States
The authoritative numerical history of the United States.

Data and Statistics around the World

International Historical Statistics
Statistical data from around the world (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania) covering a wide range of socio-economic topics. This resource updates the latest print edition (2007) of International Historical Statistics. It includes 260 years of data, collected between 1750-2010, and offers the ability to compare by year or geographic region and to download data as an ePDF or Excel file.

International Institute of Social History: Data Sets
Includes access to multiple data sets from different spaces around the globe, predominately focused on the 19th and 20th centuries, some older. Emphasizes social history with information on labor, wages, prices and more.
Our World in Data
A database of data databases. Global coverage as available. Temporal coverage depends on topic, which include population, health, energy, environment, growth and inequality, education, politics.

more... less...

Created by Max Roser, economist, Oxford University and staff.

Social Explorer
Provide quick and easy access to historical census data and demographic information. Creates maps and reports to help users visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history. Includes the U.S. Census from 1790–2000 and all annual updates from the American Community Survey.

Data and Statistics in Contemporary History

Data-Planet Statistical Datasets
Time series data from licensed and public domain datasets including key government data. Areas covered include: economic indicators, banking, crime, employment, environment, health, housing, industry, pricing and cost of living, transportation data and many more topics. Incudes International Monetary Fund Data. Download data in spreadsheet format with some shapefiles for Geographic Information Systems..

Gapminder
Select world data from WHO, UN, World Bank, International Agency for Research on Cancer and others. Offers interactive visualizations.

Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996
From the archives of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency come government reports covering all aspects of global migration during much of the 20th-century, including such pivotal events as post-World War II Jewish resettlement, South African apartheid, Latin American migrations to the United States and much more. This digital archive captures translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals and government documents, along with analysis by the CIA predecessor agency.

Maddison Project
Continuing the work of Angus Maddison, offers estimates of world economic growth (GDP per capita) 1995-2014 CE.

OECD Statistics
The OECD Statistics delivers a selection of the most frequently used OECD statistics. These monthly, quarterly or annual time series cover the OECD's main areas of coverage: Agriculture and Food - Development and Aid - General Economic Problems - Economic Indicators - National Accounts - Employment - Energy - Financial and Fiscal Affairs - Industry, Science and Technology - Foreign Trade.

Total Economy Database
GDP, population, employment, productivity, and more for 123 countries from 1950–present. Formerly from the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, and now maintained by the Conference Board.
World Inequality Database
Database of the world's historical and current distribution of wealth and incomes within and between countries. Data included comes from national accounts, survey data, fiscal data, wealth rankings. Temporal coverage depends on topic, some sets beginning in the 1950s others in the 1990s.

more... less...

Coordinated by an executive committee of five co-directors from the Paris School of Economics and University of California Berkeley, with assistance from World Inequality Lab.

For additional help

For additional recommendations, contact your subject liaison (Brittany Lehman) at brittany.lehman@bc.edu or schedule an appointment with them.