SPSS is an easy-to-use and powerful data management and analysis software package that performs a wide variety of statistical procedures. The original acronym stands for ‘Statistical Package for the Social Sciences’. SPSS runs on Windows, Macintosh and UNIX platforms.
SPSS provides a comprehensive set of flexible tools that can be used to accomplish various data analysis tasks and has the option of using drop-down menus or scripting. It is well-suited to accommodate different exploration strategies such as surveys and experiments in diverse fields of enquiry. SPSS is among the used for statistical analysis in business, government, health, education, research and academic organisations.
SPSS vs Stata: Which is right for you?
SPSS is similar to Stata in that you can either use drop-down menus or use coding to do analysis. SPSS deals better with very large datasets but is more expensive than Stata. Stata generally has better support available from various sources such as the statalist forum, documentation online and built-in help. You can request a license and instructions on how to download and install SPSS by emailing tech.support@lse.ac.uk.
SPSS vs R or Python
SPSS is easier to learn than R and Python, providing easier access to running some types of analysis. It is still a popular choice in the social sciences, but R and Python are catching up. R and Python are open-source and freely available, whereas SPSS needs a licence, which can be expensive. R and Python are better options for data visualisation and machine learning but you will have to learn to code in order to fully utilise them.
We have workshops and self-study courses in Stata, Python and R.
Start learning SPSS with our Introduction to SPSS Moodle course.
Other support
The Department of Methodology also has some online tutorials in SPSS that were produced in 2011 that students have found useful along with a YouTube training channel.