This dataset comprises previously published and new data on the composition of sediment cores from the Arctic Ocean. New data are supplied for cores PS51/038-4, PS72/396-5 and PS72/396-3: For PS51/038-4 and PS72/396-5, we provide data on 230Th excess, 238U, 234U/238U together with bulk Ca, Mn and S concentrations. For PS72/396-3, we provide data on planktonic foraminifera, their oxygen and carbon isotopic composition, allochtonous forminifera fractions and the abundance of Cibicides lobatulus subsp. grossa. Thorium and uranium isotopes were measured on a sector-field ICP-MS (Element2) via isotope dilution; elemental concentrations on an ICP-OES iCAP; foraminfera abundances after freeze-drying and sieving of a mean sample size of 87 g; and stable isotopes on a Finnigan MAT 251 isotope ratio gas mass spectrometer directly coupled to a Kiel I automatic carbonate preparation device; all at the Alfred Wegener Institute. 230Thex was calculated by subtracting the activity of 234U from 230Th.Existing data comprise 230Thex for PS2185 and PS2200 (recalculated from Strobl et al. 1998), 10Be for the same cores (Strobl 1998 and Spielhagen et al. 2004), and microfossil data for the same cores (Spielhagen et al. 2004). In addition, we provide 230Thex data For HLY-0503-11 and HLY0503-12 from Not and Hillaire Marcel (2010) and PS87/030-1 from Hillaire Marcel et al. (2017).We also include previously published original and now recalculated U-series data (as described in the publication) together with previously published data for 10Be, magnetic susceptibility, sand content, stable isotopes, planktonic foraminifera abundance, CaCO3 content, TOC content, and age information for PS1533-3; 230Thexcess data manually digitized from a published paper version for PS1235-2 (Eisenhauer et al. 1990); a copy of previously published U-series data for GIK23065-3 (Paetsch et al. 1991).