Research Guides: Social Explorer: Using the Social Explorer Database: Sociology / Social Justice / Social Work

Getting Started

Sociology / Social Justice / Social Work

This page contains a curated list of maps, datasets and teach and learn modules useful in sociology, social work and social justice courses. This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a starting point for you to explore all that Social Explorer has to offer.

As always, if you need help please visit our help center or feel free to contact us!

Maps

Curated Maps for Sociology / Social Justice / Social Work

Use Social Explorer maps to visualize and analyze the characteristics of almost any location, like voting, poverty, aging populations, ethnicity and race, spending patterns, health indicators, crime, environment or education. You can see trends and make comparisons over time and place to gain insights and make decisions.

For an introduction to how to use Social Explorer Maps, start with this video tutorial. There are videos that explain how to browse available datasets, customize your map, compare variables and notice trends, export and share your projects, and even tips for how to tell stories using your data.

When you're ready, click on one of the example maps below to get started, or access the complete set of maps here. Also, don't be afraid to explore! You can always save your variables to go back to later.

U.S. Crime Data
Visualize U.S. crime data on a metropolitan/nonmetropolitan county level for years 2010 and 2012. The crime data originates from FBI and UCR. Data are available for different types of crime and arrests, including violent crimes and murders as well as property crimes such as burglaries and larceny-thefts.
U.S. Election Data
Visualize United States election results historically from 1912 to today. Presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial election data come from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and are available for visualization only.
U.S. Health Data
Explore vital health factors such as access to health care, obesity, smoking, excessive drinking and others in nearly every county in United States. The presented data comes from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program (2010 - 2016).
U.S. Opportunity Zones
The Opportunity Zones incentive is a new community investment tool established by Congress to encourage long-term investment in low-income communities.Explore the U.S. data with Opportunity zones layer, and create Opportunity Zone Report including the most important demographics on population density, race, age, income, education, family and households.
U.S. Population Estimates
Visualize the Population Estimates for U.S. at state and county levels for the latest vintage year. The annual time series of estimates begins with the most recent decennial census data and extends to the vintage year. It contains the components of population change (births, deaths, and migration).
U.S. Religion Data
Explore religion data in every county, state, and the United States. The data were collected by Infogroup - American Church Lists and the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS), and organized in partnership with The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA).
United States
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys and many other datasets.
World Development Indicators
Collected by The World Bank, World Development Indicators allow you to visualize, explore, and compare indicators for almost every country in the world, or switch to a geographic region level for a summarized preview. Data is available in decennial reports (1960-2013).

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Datasets

Datasets

Social Explorer allows you to quickly and easily create and manage reports for one or thousands of variables and geographies. You can also download data for further processing. To get started:

This guide will show you how to create, save and share, and download a report
To access the complete list of available datasets and build your own reports, click here.
Check out the example datasets below
For more detailed information on each dataset, reference the data dictionary

American Community Survey 2019 (5-Year Estimates)
The ACS 5-Year Estimates (available down to the Census Block Group geography) data plus Social Explorer tables which include easy reports with age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household relationship, place of birth, education, employment status, income, tenure, cost and value of housing, year structure built and other data.
Black Lives Matter
This dataset shows the total population of cities that have witnessed protests, broken down by race and ethnicity. Note: the list of cities was compiled by The New York Times and may not be complete.
Community Resilience Estimates
Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb, endure, and recover from the impacts of a disaster. The Community Resilience Estimates are experimental estimates produced using information on individuals and households from the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) and the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program as well as publicly available health condition rates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Other available U.S. Health Data includes COVID-19 Insights and Health Data Releases from 2010-2020.
European Statistics 2014
Explore European demographic data collected by Eurostat. Dozens of countries report their population numbers and detailed characteristics, as well as data on births, deaths and migration. These data are also available for disseminated geographical aggregates, such as the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.
FBI Crime Data 2018
This crime data originates from the U.S. Department of Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FBI collects the data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and provides the volume of violent and property crimes as report by law enforcement agencies.
Income Limits and Fair Market Rent 2020
Fair Market Rents data is used as the basis for payment standards in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program and Income Limits measures income thresholds for determining eligibility for housing assistance. Also available in the U.S. Housing Data section of Social Explorer are Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the most importance resource for creating affordable housing in the U.S. today, and the U.S. Building Permits Survey that provides national, state, and local statistics on new privately-owned residential construction.
U.S. Census 2010
The U.S. Census Bureau has conducted the Decennial Census every 10 years since 1790. It provides a full count of the U.S. population for congressional and legislative redistricting and includes detailed demographic information spanning over 220 years.
U.S. Unemployment Statistics 2020
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics provides datasets that allow you to explore economic indicators such as unemployment statistics across the U.S. at the state, county, and MSA levels, so that you can explore monthly changes for unemployment rates.

Teach and Learn Modules

Teach & Learn Modules for Courses

Use these resources created by Social Explorer to inspire creativity, encourage hands-on learning, and equip your students with desired skills. Here are some suggested modules to get you started. To explore the entire library of activities, click here!

Building Community and a Better Future in Minneapolis
This module employs census data to examine changes over time in neighborhood indicators in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. The module connects asset-based community development led by HOPE Community, a non-profit in the neighborhood, to spatial depictions of neighborhood well-being.
Crime and Social Control
This module employs FBI crime data to explore hate crimes in general and by race/ethnicity.
Exploring the Correlation between Class and Race
This module employs Social Explorer data and mapping tools to explore the most common research questions in the social sciences concerning the relationship between race and class and how that correlation impacts employment, education, and so on.
Global Stratification
This module explores global stratification with a focus on GDP per capita and other topics.
Income Inequality and Gentrification
This module introduces students briefly to the concept of the GINI coefficient, followed by an examination of gentrification in San Francisco. This module also uses data on education, income, and home value levels, along with demographic data, to demonstrate the characteristics of neighborhood change from 2010 to 2018.
Is the American Dream Dying? Or Just Changing?
This module examines the changing relationship between higher educational attainment and poverty in the U.S.
Linguistic Diversity in the United States
This module examines the complex history of language in the United States.
Mapping Changes in American Families
This module explores changes in family patterns across the U.S. in recent decades.
Race and Place in the U.S. Across Time
This module provides an overview of the history of racial/ethnic distribution in the U.S.
Regional Changes in Presidential Election Voting
This module provides an overview of the regional political alignment of recent decades and explores how the map has changed over time.
Work and Unemployment
Even before the pandemic, inequality existed in the job market. What impact does race, ethnicity and gender have on employment opportunities?
Poverty and Exposure to Environmental Hazards
There is a connection between social and environmental justice, and people of color bear the burden of environmental hazards such as air pollution, poor water quality, and proximity to incineration sites, to name a few. This module uses census data to explore the intersection of poverty, race and ethnicity and environmental hazards, concluding with a focus on the Mott Haven neighborhood in S. Bronx, NY.
Religious Diversity in the United States
This module examines how religion has shaped American life and society.
Urban Crisis in the United States
This module demonstrates the ways in which multiple factors such as suburbanization, redlining, and deindustrialization combined to create a crises in America's inner-cities, disproportionately affecting poor minorities and the urban poor.
Urbanization and Population Growth
This module explores population growth in the United States with a focus on the growth of the Sun Belt since the early 20th century, declining agricultural employment, and contemporary domestic migration patterns.