Research and Course Guides: *Datasets & Statistics Guide: U.S. Sources by Topic

Search Across Categories with Data-Planet

Data-Planet help guides
See Sage Data's (formerly Data-Planet) help site for general help in searching and using the data sets, guides to specific sources, and links to statistical summaries by country or U.S. state.

Arts & Culture

National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture
The National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture (NADAC) provides free and easy access to data (microdata for download & analysis, not summary tables) on the value and impact of the arts in individuals and communities.

Agriculture

National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA
Data tables, charts, and maps documenting crop & livestock condition, production, prices, land area/value, farm finances, & environmental issues, etc.
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NASS collects, summarizes, analyzes, and publishes ag production & marketing data, including # of farms and land in farms, acreage, yield, production, stocks of grains, and numerous commodities. The Census of Agriculture is conducted every 5 years to collect detailed info on the # of farms, land use, value of production, acreage of major crops, inventory of livestock & poultry, value of land, buildings, etc., plus other demographic & business issues, irrigation practices, etc.
Economic Research Service, USDA
The Economic Research Service provides key indicators, outlook analysis, and a wealth of data on the U.S. food and agricultural system. Along with information on farming practices, structure, and performance, ERS produces data on such diverse topics as farm and rural households, commodity markets, food marketing, agricultural trade, diet and health, food safety, food and nutrition assistance programs, natural resources and the environment, and the rural economy.

Business & Marketing Data

eCommerceDB This link opens in a new window
Global e-commerce data about individual online stores, market segments by country, brand and trend reports, etc. for thousands of stores in 50 countries.
From the landing page, select University Access in the upper right. If you get to a page prompting payment, copy the page URL and send an explanation with content title to our Ask a Librarian service.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Public company financial data, SEC filings, and industry information. Investment analyst reports available via the Investext module.
Note: Mergent will be discontinuing the Mergent Online platform in mid-2025. Its replacement, Mergent Market Atlas, is available now.
Use of the Mergent data and service are intended for non-commercial academic purposes only.
RMA Statement Studies This link opens in a new window
Financial ratio benchmarks, industry default probabilities, and cash flow measures.
S&P Global NetAdvantage This link opens in a new window
Public company, mutual fund, and ETF data plus SEC filings, analyst research reports, industry reports, and stock screening & charting tools.
MRI-Simmons Catalyst This link opens in a new window
Demographics, psychographics, product usage, spending behavior, and media habits of U.S. adult consumers, based on national consumer surveys. Use it to create your own custom reports.
MRI-Simmons Catalyst user guide

Health Statistics

National Center for Health Statistics
An arm of the Centers for Disease Control, NCHS is the principal U.S. health statistics agency. Data on diseases and conditions, demographics, health insurance, injuries, causes of accidents and death, etc.
CDC WONDER Datasets
Easy access to detailed CDC datasets for downloading. Includes datasets on AIDS, natality, mortality, cancer, environmental, population, STDs, and more.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (Trends & Statistics)
Surveys and other data on drug and alcohol abuse.
National Institute for Mental Health
Link to their statistics section
MN Public Health Data Access Portal
State public health data by county.
Minnesota Center for Health Statistics
State and county level data on a variety of health indicators from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).
Abortion data for Minnesota
Copies of a mandated report to the Legislature on induced abortion in Minnesota, from MDH.
The Global Health Observatory
Created and maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), contains health-related statistics for over 1000 indicators for almost 200 “Member States.”

Housing & Urban Development

American Housing Survey. DHUD
National and metropolitan statistics for apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant homes, family composition, income, housing and neighborhood quality, housing costs, equipment, fuels, size of housing unit, and recent movers. National data are collected every other year, from a fixed sample of about 50,000 homes, plus new construction each year. The survey started in 1973, and has had the same sample since 1985, letting you see homes and households changing over the years.
HUD Online Library
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports and datasets.
HUD User Research Porlal
From HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research; includes research, publications, and datasets. Provides access to original data sets including the American Housing Survey, HUD median family 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.
Zillow Housing Data
Monthly housing metrics for the U.S. and metro areas.

Public Opinion Polling, Elections, Campaign Contributions

AP-NORC Polling Data
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research gathers, analyzes, and disseminates data to inform public policy decisions.
Polling Report.com
Independent and nonpartisan source of public opinion data
Gallup Poll
Polling data on a variety of topics. Historical access limited.
Pew Research Center poll data
Article describing and linking to Pew polling data.
American National Election Studies
High quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation. A collaboration of several universities. Full datasets also downloadable via ICPSR database.
Federal Elections Commission
The FEC site includes summary graphics and detailed databases of individual contributions to candidates for federal elective office.
Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board
Board data on campaign contributions to candidates for state elective office.
Economist's 2020 Election Forecast Data
Displays the results of their national popular vote and electoral college forecasting simulations; links to model code and output, national and state source polling data.

Population/Demographics

The Census Bureau's Explore Census Data page is your go to source for demographic info on the U.S. The Decennial Census provides detailed information on the U.S. every 10 years, while the American Community Survey provides comparable data on an annual (3yr average) basis.

Data.Census.Gov
Data.Census.Gov, the portal that replaces American FactFinder, is the primary way to access U.S. Census Bureau data, including data from the American Community Survey, Population Estimates, Economic Census, and Annual Economic Surveys. Users can generate simple visualizations, extract reports, and explore census data by theme or topic.
Census Survey Explorer
Discover U.S. Census Bureau surveys or censuses by filtering and searching by geography, frequency, topics, and subtopics. | Watch video on Census Survey Explorer.

Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
A summary of statistics on the social, political and economic conditions of the United States. Excel and PDF files of data tables are available for download. Coverage from 1970 to present.

IPUMS: Integrated Public Use Microdata Series
Census and survey microdata from U.S. and international sources, integrated across time and space. Covers demographic, economic, social, health, and education issues. University of Minnesota.
Social Explorer
An online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to modern and historical census data and demographic information in report and map form. (we don't subscribe, but free trials are available).
General Social Survey
The GSS contains a standard core of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Among the topics covered are civil liberties, crime and violence, intergroup tolerance, morality, national spending priorities, psychological well-being, social mobility, and stress and traumatic events.

Criminal Justice/ Conflicts

Bureau of Justice Statistics
The BJS collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts This link opens in a new window
The NCJR Contains summaries of the more than 200,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources and is sponsored by several departments within the Office of Justice Programs.

FBI Crime Data Explorer
Contains the Uniform Crime Reports series and other data on hate crimes, bank/financial crimes, internet, drug, and gang crimes, terrorism, and law enforcment officer deaths. | Article on changes in crime reporting.
Measures for Justice
A compilation of local criminal justice data from the U.S. supplementing and simplifying the often-incomplete federal data.
School Shooting Safety Compendium
Data including a school shootings database, from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Includes links to other shooting incident databases.
Washington Post Fatal Force Database
Database compiled by the newspaper (housed on Github) of fatal shootings by law enforcement.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) is a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project. ACLED collects the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events across much of the world. There is also US Crisis Monitor — a joint project that provides data and analysis on political violence and demonstrations in the United States.

Immigration/Migration/Refugees

Immigration Data Portal
Maintained by the Center for Immigration Studies
Migration Policy Institute - Migration Data Hub
Includes country and comparative data, including many country profiles (with links) and US trends.
Census Bureau Foreign Born Population site
Reports and data on the foreign born population of the U.S.
Census Bureau Migration/Geographic Mobility site
Reports and data on migrarion.
Immigration Data and Statistics
Statistics site for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
OECD iLibrary Migration Data
Subscription version of OECD migration data
OECD.stat International Migration Database
Track migration flows via nationality.
Refugee Resettlement Data 1975-2018
A platform to share digitised individual refugee data (1975-2008) obtained from publicly held records from the Office of Refugee Resettlement; a second geo-coded version is also available for 1975-2018.
UNHCR Refugee Data Finder
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) site that contains data on forcibly displaced and stateless populations, their demography and the solutions some of them found.

Internet & Technology Use

eMarketer This link opens in a new window
eMarketer provides updated, “grab-and-go” market data, statistics, and analysis on the Internet, e-business, online marketing, media, and emerging technologies.

Pew Research Center: Internet & Technology
Non-partisan fact tank arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts; provides reports, graphical and tabular data on web usage, demographics, etc.
Pew Research Center datasets
Sign up for a free account to download the microdata and crosstabs from Pew surveys in all areas.
Historical Cross-Country Technology Adoption (HCCTA) Dataset
Dataset that was collected to allow for the analysis of the adoption patterns of some of the major technologies introduced in the past 250 years across the World's leading industrialized economies.

Religion

The Association of Religion Data Archives
ARDA's site includes data and reports on religious attitudes & beliefs, religious affiliation & identification, behaviors & experiences, etc. for the U.S. and other nations.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Reports and data on religious issues, practices, and demographics.
U.S. Religion Census
Maintained by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.
UST Libraries Religion Statistics Guide
Links to many authoritative religion data sources

Science & Engineering

National Center for Science & Engineering Statistics
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), part of the National Science Foundation (NSF), is the nation's leading provider of statistical data on the U.S. science and engineering enterprise. Explore data on research and development, the science and engineering workforce, the condition and progress of STEM education, and U.S. competitiveness in science, engineering, technology, and R&D.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration Data Central
NTIA is a central resource for data and analysis on computer and Internet use in the United States.
NCBI Datasets
Easily gather data from across NCBI databases. Find and download gene, transcript, protein and genome sequences, annotation and metadata.

Education

National Center for Education Statistics
A bureau of the federal Department of Education, NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. The site has a vast array of data sources and reports extending from early childhood through post-graduate education.
Educause
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Their reports are often replete with useful statistical data.
UST Libraries Education Statistics page
More detailed list of sources from one of our other guides.

Energy, Environment & Natural Resources

Energy Information Administration
The Department of Energy's statistical agency, with information on petroleum, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear, renewable & alternative fuels: extraction, production, consumption, etc.
National Minerals Information Center
US Geological Survey site providing "statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of the environment."
National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, & Wildlife Associated Recreation
A survey done every five years by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (last done in 2016), detailing participation and spending in these pursuits nationally, and in each of the 50 states. Index of survey results and report products.
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)
A NASA data center with datasets in thematic areas including agriculture, climate, conservation, governance, hazards, health, infrastructure, land use, marine/coastal, population, poverty, remote sensing, sustainability, urban, water.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA is the federal agency charged with protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment. The agency collects and disseminates a wide variety of statistical data: browse or search the site by topic to find it.
USGS Data site
Biological, earth, and oceanic sciences data sources.

Non-profit Sector

National Center for Charitable Statistics
Reports and data tables from a national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. # of organizations, revenues, assets, expenses, etc. by type of organization and geography.
ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer
Searchable database of IRS TI-990 nonprofit organization tax filings. Also tables of revenue by state.
990 Finder - Candid
Search for a nonprofit's IRS return. Formerly, the Foundation Center's 990 Finder.
Non-Profit Sector Data from the Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Includes reports and data from various ongoing research initiatives including the Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, an international analysis of the scope, structure, financing, and impact of the nonprofit activity throughout the world; the Nonprofit Economic Data project; and the UN Nonprofit Handbook
IRS Exempt Organization Check
See IRS filings and other information on tax-exempt organizations.
Volunteering and Civic Life
See this Census news release for a collection of data sources, updated periodically. See also the Current Population Survey page for data on Volunteering and Civic Life.
Chronicle of Philanthropy Data page
Articles and datasets sponsored by the publication.
Independent Sector Resources page
Studies and data.

Stock & Index price data; Financial statements

S&P Global NetAdvantage This link opens in a new window
Public company, mutual fund, and ETF data plus SEC filings, analyst research reports, industry reports, and stock screening & charting tools.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Public company financial data, SEC filings, and industry information. Investment analyst reports available via the Investext module.
Note: Mergent will be discontinuing the Mergent Online platform in mid-2025. Its replacement, Mergent Market Atlas, is available now.
Use of the Mergent data and service are intended for non-commercial academic purposes only.

Yahoo Finance
Find the desired company and open it's record; for pricing, select "Historical Data"; for holdings information, select "Holders."

Transportation

Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Data on air, auto, truck, highway, freight, rail, ship, and other modes of transportation.
North American Transportation Statistics Database
Presents information on transportation and transportation-related activities among Canada, the United States and Mexico, both within individual countries and between the countries.
American Transportation Research Institute
ATRI is a trade association that provides significant research for the trucking industry.
fueleconomy.gov
The official US government source for fuel economy information, sponsored by the Dept. of Energy and the EPA.

Weather & Climate

Climate.gov
NOAA Climate.gov is a source of timely and authoritative scientific data and information about climate
NOAA: National Centers for Environmental Information
Hosts the federal government's primary data sets on weather & climate; housed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA Climate Data Online
Free access to NCDC's archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information.
NOAA Climate Data site
Climate data primer and list of datasets.
NOAA/NWS Severe Weather Database
Datasets on tornados, hail, damaging winds; includes variables including location, magnitude, injuries/fatalities, damages, etc.
World Bank Climate Change Data site
Includes indicators, a knowledge portal, carbon pricing dashboard, etc.

Sports

SBRNet (Sports Market Analytics) This link opens in a new window
Data, reports, and articles about sports fan demographics, sports participation, sports venue revenues, sporting goods sales, and much more.

Sports-Reference.com
"A group of sites providing both basic and sabermetric statistics and resources for sports fans everywhere. Our aim is to be the easiest-to-use, fastest, most complete sources for sports statistics anywhere."
American Statistics Association Statistics in Sports
Collection of sports stats links from ASA.
Rodney Fort's Sports Business Data page
Sports economist put together a substantial collection of professional sports business data on a Google Drive; also indexed in Library of Congress website.
FanGraphs
Baseball data, including advanced metrics
The Football Database
NFL and college football data and statistics.