Data & Statistics Resources

Dataset:  American National Election Studies Cumulative Data File, 1948-2004

Access Data:  Available through ICPSR- For the complete series, search by "American              National Election Studies Series."  To access the Cumulative Data File, 1948-2004, search by Study No. "8475".

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For data files accompanied by an SPSS syntax file, please see the following help file.  If you need further assistance, please contact Lynda Duke (x3220) or Roger Kosson (x1551).  ICPSR provides tutorials on downloading and using datasets at http://www.icprs.org/help/newuser.html.

Description:    This collection pools common variables from each of the biennial National Election Studies conducted since 1948. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans':

  • social backgrounds
  • enduring political predispositions
  • social and political values
  • perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates
  • opinions on questions of public policy
  • participation in political life

The data provided in this cumulative file include a series of demographic variables and measures of:

  • social structure
  • partisanship
  • candidate evaluation
  • retrospective and incumbent presidential evaluation
  • public opinion
  • ideological support for the political system
  • mass media usage
  • equalitarianism and post-materialism

Additional items provide measures of political activity, participation, and involvement, and voting behavior and registration (including results of vote validation efforts).

Time period:  1948-2004

For more details, see below.

Principal Investigators

Sapiro, Virginia, Steven J. Rosenstone, and the National Election Studies

Data Format and File Storage

LRECL with SAS and SPSS data definition statements, SPSS export file, and SAS transport file (CPORT)

Source of Data

Data files from the American National Election Studies series

Bibliographic Citation

Sapiro, Virginia, Steven J. Rosenstone, and the National Election Studies. AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDIES CUMULATIVE DATA FILE, 1948-2000 [Computer file]. 11th ICPSR version. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2002.