This data set is the first comprehensive Arctic river delta data set containing soil carbon and nitrogen information. In this study, we collected archived and new soil carbon and nitrogen data from soil cores in Arctic deltas. In total, this data set contains 1,571 soil samples from 154 soil cores collected in 17 different Arctic river deltas (including deltas from Alaska, Canada, Russia and Greenland). In addition, it includes a geospatial layer (shapefile) that identifies the location, extent and size of 211 Arctic deltas. This data set was used to estimate the total organic carbon and total nitrogen stored in Arctic river deltas for frozen and non-frozen deposits and therefore characterizes this deep (down to 60 m) permafrost carbon pool for the first time. This first version of the data set consists of four different files: 1) soil core information, 2) soil sample information (including organic carbon and nitrogen data), 3) delta information, and 4) geospatial delta layer (shapefile). The data set therefore consists of a combination of previously archived and newly acquired data for Arctic river deltas.