NSEE Data Access

The National Surveys on Energy and Environment, a program of biannual national opinion surveys, has built up an extensive data library on issues related to climate change, as well as wider issues of energy and environmental policy. The NSEE is committed to transparency in all facets of our work, including timely release and posting of data from each survey wave. The NSEE data cover topics such as belief in climate change, knowledge about global warming and response, public policy to address climate change (including federal action, state action, and international actions), energy policies such as cap-and-trade, carbon tax, renewable energy requirements, and many more. For more information on specific questions asked in the surveys, please view the list of topics that have been asked on NSEE surveys.

CLOSUP has deposited the 2008-2018 datasets with the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The data will be deposited in the openICSPR archive, available to anyone with internet access.

CLOSUP provides data tables of the overall frequencies of responses to each of the NSEE questions for the Fall 2008-Spring 2019 NSEE waves.  The NSEE datasets—for more complex analysis using statistical software—are being deposited into two different collections at ICPSR:

• Open access single-survey datasets
  See the single-survey datasets
  These datasets can be downloaded immediately by anyone. They contain the full set of data for each individual survey.
• Longitudinal dataset
  See the longitudinal dataset
  The longitudinal dataset is available only through ICPSR's member archive. The codebook can be downloaded by anyone, however the longitudinal dataset can only be downloaded by individuals at ICPSR member institutions. Other individuals can access the data for a fee.

Data Finding Aids

The NSEE surveys have covered a wide range of topics. To find data of interest, view the Tables of Contents for each survey's pre-run data tables

Replication of Results

As part of the NSEE's commitment to transparency, the data available via open access or through ICPSR's member archive can be used to replicate the data tables available on CLOSUP's website, as well as the data in CLOSUP's published reports. To replicate results, data users should ensure that values of 98 "Not sure" are set as valid responses, while responses of 99 "Refused" and -9 "Not asked" are set missing. The weight variable included in each dataset should also be used for replication.

Respondent Confidentiality

The NSEE assures respondents that their identity will remain confidential at all times. Therefore, CLOSUP modifies the open access and longitudinal datasets in order to protect that confidentiality. Zip codes are stripped from the data, however both state and region variables remain in the dataset. Other demographic variables are recoded into broader categories. Codebooks for each wave of data indicate where variables have been recoded.