Bowling Alone, Data and Documentation

Below is information about another source of interesting national survey data that PA552 students could use for PA552 course projects.

Information about the book Bowling Alone can be found at the following web address, and data used for the book can also be downloaded:

The data consist of national survey data over time, and can be used to investigate the idea developed in the Bowling Alone book that over time society is breaking down as americans became more disconnected from their families, neighbors, communities, and the country.

The data are available in SPSS format. The file is large and will take a long time to download on a dial-up connection. The SPSS file contains 85,000 cases and takes 35 megabytes of disk space.

If any students want, I can create smaller SPSS files for specific years over the 1975-1998 period covered by the survey data. Just let me know if you want such a file. You can look at the above web address to find further information on the study.