Data & Mapping Sources
Mapping / Visualization
Census / Demography
- American Community Survey (ACS) The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides vital information on a yearly basis about our nation and its people. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year. Through the ACS, we know more about jobs and occupations, educational attainment, veterans, whether people own or rent their homes, and other topics.
- Current Population Survey The Current Population Survey (CPS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most well-recognized surveys in the United States. It is immensely important, providing information on many of the things that define us as individuals and as a society – our work, our earnings, and our education. In addition to being the primary source of monthly labor force statistics, the CPS is used to collect data for a variety of other studies that keep the nation informed of the economic and social well-being of its people.
- National Equity Atlas A comprehensive resource for data to track, measure, and make the case for racial equity and inclusive prosperity in America’s regions, and states, and nationwide. The Atlas contains data on demographic change, racial and economic inclusion, and the potential economic gains from racial equity for the largest 100 cities, largest 150 regions, all 50 states, and the United States as a whole.
- IPUMS USA IPUMS USA collects, preserves and harmonizes U.S. census microdata and provides easy access to this data with enhanced documentation. Data includes decennial censuses from 1790 to 2010 and American Community Surveys (ACS) from 2000 to the present.
- IPUMS CPS IPUMS CPS harmonizes microdata from the monthly U.S. labor force survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), covering the period 1962 to the present. Data include demographic information, rich employment data, program participation and supplemental data on topics such as fertility, tobacco use, volunteer activities, voter registration, computer and internet use, food security, and more.
- IPUMS International PUMS-International is dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world. The project goals are to collect and preserve data and documentation, harmonize data, and disseminate the harmonized data free of charge.
Data Archives
- 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.
- Harvard Dataverse Network Dataverse is an open source web application to share, preserve, cite, explore, and analyze research data. It facilitates making data available to others, and allows you to replicate others' work more easily. Researchers, journals, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive academic credit and web visibility.
- World Bank Data Catalog The Open Data Catalog lists all data adhering to the Open Data terms of use. This catalog lists all Open Data and other publicly available data disseminated through World Bank sites, but may have some restrictions on use.
- Data is Plural A weekly newsletter of useful/curious datasets. Archive of 1100+ datasets is available as a spreadsheet.
- re3data.org Registry of Research Data Repositories.
- Data.gov 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
Children and Families
- The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 The NLSY97 consists of a nationally representative sample of approximately 9,000 youths who were 12 to 16 years old as of December 31, 1996. Round 1 of the survey took place in 1997. In that round, both the eligible youth and one of that youth's parents received hour-long personal interviews. Youths continue to be interviewed on an annual basis.
- Children's Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Using information collected through various monitoring and reporting systems, the Children's Bureau analyzes and reports data on a variety of topics, including adoption, foster care, and child abuse and neglect.
- National Survey of Family Growth The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men’s and women’s health. The survey results are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others to plan health services and health education programs, and to do statistical studies of families, fertility, and health
Crime
- National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) archives and disseminates data on crime and justice for secondary analysis. The archive contains data from over 2,700 curated studies or statistical data series. NACJD is home to several large-scale and well known datasets, including the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and the Project on Human Development in Chicago
- The Compendium of National Juvenile Justice Datasets The Compendium of National Juvenile Justice Data Sets is an online resource for researchers that is intended as an aid to investigations of juvenile offending, victimization, and contact with the juvenile justice system. It both publicizes data sources that users may find valuable and provides information intended to help with the practical aspects of obtaining and analyzing data.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is the United States' primary source for criminal justice statistics
- Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (University of Albany) The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data about all aspects of criminal justice in the United States presented in over 600 tables from more than 100 sources. Selected data to 2013.
- School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) is the primary source of school-level data on crime and safety for the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The SSOCS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of about 3,500 public elementary and secondary schools.
Education
- National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
- US Schools Demographic Data This page leads to data on the racial/ethnic composition of public elementary schools in each decade beginning in most cases in 1970. It also provides measures of school segregation, which declined substantially in the 1970s nationwide but changed little since 1980. Additional information is provided about the 2010-2011 test score performance of the schools that children attended and shares of free-lunch-eligible children. Within the same district the disparities between schools attended by white and minority children are often not large, but on a metropolitan level they are severe.
- Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) is a national longitudinal study of the American higher education system. It is regarded as the most comprehensive source of information on college students.
- National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) The National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) follows a cohort of first-time freshman at selective colleges and universities through their college careers. Equal numbers of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians were sampled at each of the 28 participating schools. Among other uses, the data has been collected with the testing of several competing theories of minority underperformance in college in mind.
Health
- National Center for Health Statistics The mission of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is to provide statistical information that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the American people. As the Nation's principal health statistics agency, NCHS leads the way with accurate, relevant, and timely data.
- The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The Add Health cohort has been followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most recent in 2008, when the sample was aged 24-32. Add Health is re-interviewing cohort members in a Wave V follow-up from 2016-2018 to collect social, environmental, behavioral, and biological data with which to track the emergence of chronic disease as the cohort moves through their fourth decade of life.
- SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Office of Applied Studies SAMHSA is the lead Federal Agency for improving access to quality substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the U.S The OAS serves as SAMHSA's focal point for data collection, analysis, and dissemination of critical public health data to assist policymakers, providers, and the public in making informed decisions regarding the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders.
- National Institute of Mental Health Statistics Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year. Estimates suggest that only half of people with mental illnesses receive treatment. The information on these pages includes currently available statistics on the prevalence and treatment of mental illnesses among the U.S. population. In addition, information is provided about possible consequences of mental illnesses, such as suicide and disability.
- IPUMS Health Surveys IPUMS Health Surveys provide free individual-level survey data for research purposes from two leading sources of self-reported health and health care access information: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
- IPUMS Global Health IPUMS Global Health provides integrated international health survey data at no cost for research and educational purposes from two data series: the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) and Performance, Monitoring, and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020).
Religion
Time Use
- American Time Use Survey The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
- IPUMS Time Use These three resources provide free individual-level time use data for research purposes. The data extract systems make it easy to create data sets containing time use and other variables a user needs.
Housing
- HUD User Data Sets HUD provides researchers with access to the original data sets generated by PD&R-sponsored data collection efforts, including the American Housing Survey, median family incomes and income limits, as well as microdata from research initiatives on topics such as housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population.
- American Housing Survey The AHS is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey is the most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States.
