Introduction
A wealth of demographic and other data is available on a city, county, state and national level in the United States.
But navigating the maze of government and private agencies that collect data to find statistics on a particular topic is often daunting.
This guide lists the websites of major government agencies and some private organizations where you can find online searchable databases and other statistical information on different subjects.
Agriculture
- National Agricultural Statistics Service
- California Agrigultural Production Statistics
- Animal Welfare Act Inspection Reports
- Agriculture Census Data
- USDA Economic Research Service
- USDA Hog/Pork Industry Backgrounder
Business, Labor, and Economy
- Country Business Patterns from US Census
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- California Economic Resarch Unit
- OSHA Inspections
- Department of Labor Enforcement Data
- IRS Migration Data
- IRS Tax Data
- IRS Cheat Sheet for excempt organizations
- Mine Safety and Health Administration
- California Employment Development Department
- Small Business Administration
Campaign Finance
- FEC’s disclosure data catalog
- FCC Station Profiles
- Open Secrets
- ProPublica FEC Itemizer
- State Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal
- Follow The Money
Census
- Official data.census.gov
- Official American Fact Finder
- Census Reporter
- State and County Quickfacts
- Census Maps
- IRE Census Page
- IPUMS Census Data for Research
- Mapping data from Univ. Minnesota
Crime and Safety
- FBI Uniform Crime Reports
- ATF Firearm Data
- National Sex Offender Registry
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Officer Fatality Data from Officer Memorial Fund
- California Crime Data Statistics
- California Crime Statistics specific jurisdictions
- U.S. Drug Enformement Domestic Statistics
- U.S. Fire Administration
- National Fire Protection Assocation
Education
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data files
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
- U.S. Dept of Education
- California Dept. of Education
- LA Times Schools Guide
Federal Spending
- Federal Contracts
- USASpending.gov
- FedSpending.org
- Federal Audit Clearinghouse
- Bureau of Economic Analysis
Environment
- EPA General Search
- EPA Toxic Release Inventory
- EPA Discharge Waterways/Watersheds
- EPA Enforcement actions
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mapping Data
- NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center
- NOAA National Climate Center
- World Data Center for Meterology
- National Center for Environmental Information
- Global Georeference Database of Dams
Geographic Data
- USGS Earth Explorer
- USGS Databases
- FEMA GIS Portal
- Natural Earth Data
- Census TIGER/Shapefiles
- US Atlas for D3
- UC Berkeley GeoData search tool
General Database Tools
Health
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Data Medicare.gov
- Nursing homes
- ICPSR Mental Health and Substance Abuse (drugs)
- HUD Housing Data
- FDA Import Refusals
- CDC Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion
- ProPublica’s Dollar for Docs (pharmacy contributions to doctors)
- How Americans Spend Their Time (American Time Survey)
Immigration
- Dept. of Homeland Security Immigration Statistics
- Census Migration and Geographic Mobility
- Migration Policy Institute
- U.S. Population Migration Data
- Syracuse TRAC information on U.S. Federal Immigration Enforcement
International
- UN Data
- UN Comtrade Database
- UN Trade and Development Statistics
- Harvard Database of Foreign Direct Investments
- CIA World Factbook
- World Ecnomic Forum
- World Inequality Database
- Global Competitiveness Report
- World Bank Open Data
- International Criminal Court Data
- International Monetary Fund
- EuroStat — European Statistics
- World Health Organization
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
- Asian Development Bank
- Development Portal for International Aid Transparency Initiative data
- International Labour Organization
- Center for International Development
Non-profits
990 Reports (What all 501(c)3 that have more than $50K in annual revenue must file with the IRS){: target=”_blank”}
Sports
Space
Transportation and Infrastructure
- National Bridge Inventory
- FAA/NTSB Safety Data
- Service Difficulty Reports
- FlightAware Live Flight Data
- Aviation Safety Reporting System
- Transportation and Logistical Data from BTS
- Fatality Analysis Reporting System
- CHP Traffic Accident Data
- Calif. Dept. of Transportation Traffic Data
- California rejected personalized license plates
California Specific
- California Open Data Portal
- California Department of Finance (Budgets)
- Public Policy Institute Data Depot
- California Law Code Search
- California Dept. of Finance Demographic Search
- California Public Records Act Primer from First Amendment Coalition
- California Public Records Act guide from TheFirstAmendment.org
- Sample CPRA request letter from TheFirstAmendment.org
- Summary of the California Public Records Act 2004
- U.S. District Court Northern California
- California Supreme Court
Local
- Alamedia County Public Records Search
- Oakland Public Records Search
- Oakland Unified School District Data
- Oakland Open Data
- SF public records request
- Data SF Open Data
- Berkeley Records Reqeust Website
- Richmond Calif. Public Records Request
- BART Station Profiles
This tutorial was written by Jeremy Rue.
Copyright UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism . Any code samples in these tutorials are provided under the MIT License
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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