Related Guides
General Sources
National Sources
- ICPSR Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window ICPSR is the world's largest archive of computer readable social science data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
- Data.gov The home of the U.S. Government’s open data. Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
- ResearchDataGov ResearchDataGov is a web portal for discovering and requesting access to restricted microdata from 16 federal statistical agencies
- IPUMS NHGIS The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years from 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks.
- Center for Economic Studies (U.S. Census Bureau) CES research has led to the creation of a number of innovative public-use products, which combine and enhance existing surveys and administrative data.
- StatsAmerica Portal to US government data; a service of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. Search USA Towns for Boston, or build customized neighborhood data profiles with Neighborhood Profile.
- LocalView Public Meetings Database LocalView is a database co-created by Soubhik Barari and Tyler Simko to advance the study of local government in the United States. It is the largest dataset of local government public meetings — the central policy-making process in American local government — as they are captured on video.
- Boston (Federal Reserve Economic Data, FRED) Federal Reserve Economic Data, FRED is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources.
Regional / Local Sources
- Data Portal (Leventhal Map & Education Center) This portal offers free access to datasets we have created or collected, and prepared for public use. While we are constantly adding more, most are related to our public programs in collections interpretation, research, and education. Our map and dataset collections are particularly strong in Boston and New England.
- Boston Data Portal (Boston Area Research Initiative) Welcome to the Boston Area Research Initiative's data library. Here you will find data describing the people, places, and events in the greater Boston area that have been made available for research. This includes a variety of data generated by academics, government agencies, and others.
- Analyze Boston Analyze Boston is the City of Boston's open data hub to find facts, figures, and maps related to our lives within the city. We are working to make this the default technology platform to support the publication of the City's public information, in the form of data, and to make this information easy to find, access, and use by a broad audience.
- Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC): Ooen Data The Data Services department creates custom datasets and compiles administrative data to inform analysis and shape the future of our region.
- Metro Boston DataCommon (MAPC: Metropolitan Area Planning Council) The MAPC DataCommon is a one-stop shop to explore and download MAPC's datasets. Use Community Profiles to get quick numbers on any town in Massachusetts.
- CityScore (Analyze Boston) CityScore is an initiative designed to inform the Mayor and city managers about the overall health of the City at a moment’s notice by aggregating key performance metrics into one number.
Mapping Sources
- Policy Map This link opens in a new window Easy-to-use online mapping and visualization tool. Downloadable U.S. demographic, economic and social data by city, state, zip code, county or census tract. Types of data include crime, housing, health, education and occupations, derived from both public and proprietary sources.
- MassGIS (mass.gov) MassGIS is the state’s one-stop-shop for interactive maps and associated descriptive information. You can view and explore our extensive library of map information using our on-line mapping viewer, OLIVER and other web maps. GIS users can access data and web services for their software and applications. MassGIS also coordinates GIS activities in state and local government and sets GIS data standards.
- MassGIS Data Layers (mass.gov) Each digital dataset name below links to a complete data layer description. On each page you will find metadata and links to free data download.
- MassGIS Oliver (mass.gov) Zoom in on, manipulate, and download datasets
- 3D Data & Maps (Boston Planning and Development Agency) 3D smart model, GIS maps, historical maps and more resources.
- Maps (Analyze Boston 201 datasets, of which 196 are geospatial
- Boston Maps (City of Boston) Story maps, open data, and interactive apps.
- Data Portal (Leventhal Map & Education Center) This portal offers free access to datasets we have created or collected, and prepared for public use. While we are constantly adding more, most are related to our public programs in collections interpretation, research, and education. Our map and dataset collections are particularly strong in Boston and New England.
- Department of Neighborhood Development Building in Boston Map (City of Boston The map is a full inventory of projects and parcels managed by the City of Boston. Browse all active Housing, Open Space, Commercial, and To Be Decided (TBD) projects.
