An international consortium of about 700 academic institutions and research organizations, ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community.

ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

ICPSR's educational activities include the Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research external link, a comprehensive curriculum of intensive courses in research design, statistics, data analysis, and social methodology. ICPSR also leads several initiatives that encourage use of data in teaching, particularly for undergraduate instruction.

ICPSR-sponsored research focuses on the emerging challenges of digital curation and data science. ICPSR researchers also examine substantive issues related to our collections, with an emphasis on historical demography and the environment.

ICPSR receives grants from a number of government agencies and private foundations.

ICPSR is a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and maintains its office in Ann Arbor.