LibGuides: URBS 3992-001: Urban Studies Senior Seminar: Data and Statistics

Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking for Data Sources

Who? Who might be interested in and able to collect the data you would like to find? That is, who might have an interest in the subject matter as well as the material support and expertise to conduct the data collection? Who might be required to make it publicly available? Who might be willing to share it voluntarily?
- Which of these data collectors do you think will provide you the data that you need at no cost?
  - Government agencies
  - Inter-governmental organizations
  - Non-governmental organizations/non-profit organizations
  - Academic researchers
  - Think tanks/policy institutes
  - Community organizations
  - For-profit companies
Who? Part two: Do you need nationally representative samples, or would smaller studies help you answer your question? Are you looking for data on certain segments of the population?
When? Are you looking for current or historical data? Historical data from the same organization might be stored in a different database or data repository than current data. Older data and statistics might be only available in print form.
Where? At what geographic level are you interested in studying - neighborhood, city, county, state, region, country, continent, world? What organizations or individuals might collect and share data at that geographic level?

United States urban data and statistics

data.census.gov
This is the new platform for accessing recent Census Bureau data. FYI, the Census Bureau stopped releasing new data in American FactFinder (AFF) at the end of June 2019 and transitioned to data.census.gov for data releases formerly on AFF.
County Business Patterns (CBP)
CBP is an annual series from the U.S. Census Bureau that provides subnational (county/borough, zip code, congressional district, Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas) economic data by industry. This includes the number of establishments, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll, and annual payroll.
data.gov
Browse data sets by topic, or search the data catalog. You can limit your results to geospatial data sets. Federal and non-federal (state, county, municipal, etc.) data sources are available.
Data USA
Make data visualizations using public US Government data.
ESRI Data Tapestry
Quickly visualize demographic and lifestyle information about a neighborhood.
Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search is a search engine for datasets. Using a simple keyword search, users can discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web.
National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides population, housing, agricultural, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for geographic units in the United States from 1790 to the present.

PolicyMap
Online data and mapping tool for creating custom reports of data related to demographics, real estate, health, jobs, the environment, education and more. Data comes from authoritative public and proprietary sources. It has thousands of indicators on demographics, the economy, housing, lending, quality of life, education, health, and more. Data is available at the neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, depending on the data.
ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States
The Statistical Abstract of the United States is an authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. Once provided free from the U.S. Census Bureau, now provided by ProQuest.
Social Explorer
Helps you visually analyze and understand demographic, election, health, environment and other data through the use of interactive maps and data reports.

International urban data and statistics

Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search is a search engine for datasets. Using a simple keyword search, users can discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web.

Passport
An online market research tool that monitors industry trends and gives strategic analysis and a market size and market share database for all products across all key countries. Passport is Euromonitor International's global market analysis software platform, which analyses the industry in countries around the world. They also have selected city reports. You can search for these by the name of the city or browse available reports - click on "Economies" in the top navigation bar and then "Cities".
Social Explorer
Helps you visually analyze and understand demographic, election, health, environment and other data through the use of interactive maps and data reports.

UN Data
UN Data provides statistical time series for countries from around the world covering a wide range of economic and socio-demographic topics. It includes descriptions of the international sources and definitions used in compiling the data.
World Bank DataBank
The DataBank is a compilation of a number of World Bank data products, the most significant one being World Development Indicators. It includes time series data from as early as 1960.
World Council on City Data Open Data Portal
World Council on City Data Open Data Portal is based on the first international standard on city data — ISO 37120. The WCCD Open City Data Portal allows you to explore, monitor, and compare member cities on up to 100 service performance and quality of life indicators.

New York City data and statistics sources

Asian American Federation Data Center
This Data Center aims to bridge critical information gaps and provide a first-of-its-kind platform for in-depth analysis on the Asian American community. Explore data by regions: Select a region to explore: New York City and Boroughs, or New York State and Counties.
Community Portal
This resource from the Department of City Planning offers resources on a variety of topics related to land use, community planning and budget processes and demographic trends for all of New York City’s 59 community boards.
CoreData.nyc
This is a great source for empirical research and data on subsidized housing, land use, real estate development and and other useful New York City neighborhood and housing data. From NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning.
Department of Education InfoHub
The NYC Department of Education makes available a variety of data sets and reports on schools, enrollment, graduation, test results, and more.
Department of Labor data
The New York State Department of Labor provides data and statistics on employment/unemployment, earnings, industries, and employers/firms for the New York City Region.
Environment & Health Data Portal
This resource from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene allows you to create reports, tables, charts and maps on a variety of topics including environmental sustainability, health behavior & outcomes, food & drink, built environment, air & water quality, pests, and more.
EpiQuery
This resources from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is an interactive tools designed to provide users with health data from a variety of surveys and sources.

Infoshare Online
Database of statistics about New York City from 1980 to the present. Consists of official statistical data from U.S., New York State, and New York City agencies. Includes population statistics, housing data, immigration trends, socio-economic indicators, birth and death data, hospitalizations, and more. Data is presented for the geographies that are unique to New York City.

Newest New Yorkers
An ongoing series of data reports on immigration and the foreign-born population in New York City. It features analysis of demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, as well as other federal and city administrative data. There is an interactive online map showing the largest immigrant groups in each of the City’s neighborhoods as well as where the City’s top ten largest immigrant populations live.
New York City Population FactFinder (NYC PFF)
Provides access to U. S. Census Bureau population information for New York City for neighborhood tabulation areas (NTAs) and census tracts.
New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (NYCHVS)
This survey is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the city of New York to comply with New York state and New York City’s rent regulation laws. The rental vacancy rate is the primary focus of the survey. Other important survey data on housing include rent regulatory and homeownership status, structural conditions, unit maintenance and neighborhood conditions; crowding, rents, utility costs, type of heating fuel, rent/income ratios; owner purchase price and estimated value, mortgage status and interest rate; number of stories and units in building, cooperative/condominium status, wheelchair accessibility, and much more about housing and households in New York City.
NYC Open Data
NYC Open Data makes the wealth of public data generated by various New York City agencies and other City organizations available for public use. As part of an initiative to improve the accessibility, transparency, and accountability of City government, this catalog offers access to a repository of 1,500+ government-produced, machine-readable data sets. The data sets are available in a variety of machine-readable formats and are refreshed when new data becomes available. Data is presented by category, by City agency, or by other City organization.
NYC Shelter Count
Since January 2022, City Limits has been compiling and publishing daily and monthly data on the number of people staying in New York City’s homeless shelter system, using the most complete figures available.
Research Alliance for New York City Schools
Department of Education data sets from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at New York University.
New York Neighborhood Data Profiles
The NYU Furman Center's New York City Neighborhood Data Profiles are a one-stop platform for viewing and downloading neighborhood indicators, providing an in-depth look at demographic, housing market, land use, and neighborhood services indicators for the city’s 59 community districts.

Need more NYC numbers? Check out these other guides:
- New York City Data Resources provides an annotated list of particularly valuable data and statistics for New York City. Most resources are publicly available websites; in those few cases where we refer to licensed resources, access instructions are provided.
- Real Estate in New York City has links to information on property valuation and assessment, mortgages, foreclosures, and more.

Open Data Portals

What are open data portals?

Some government entities make their data available to the public using open data portals.

How to find open data portal

You can search for these in your favorite internet search engine - try searching for the name of the place and "open data" or "open data portal".
Use the Global Open Data Index to find and evaluate how usable and transparent the data portal might be.
DataPortals.org claims to be the most comprehensive list of open data portals in the world. It is curated by a group of leading open data experts from around the world - including representatives from local, regional and national governments, international organisations such as the World Bank, and numerous NGOs.

Barriers to open data portals

Open Knowledge International notes three major environmental constraints that contribute to a lack of openness in government data sharing:

"1. Lack of capacity of government to maintain infrastructure and websites; incomplete and inaccessible published official information.
2. Limited open data knowledge from the respective government officials.
3. Limited capacity and open data knowledge of CSOs to take advantage or to ask for open data."

Some examples of open data portals

Data archives

Harvard Dataverse
Housed at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard, this claims to host the world's largest collection of social science research. It holds data from many researchers and institutions in addition to Harvard.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR is one of the largest repositories for social science data in the world. Among the many topics covered, you will find statistics on crime, education, demographics, elections, religion, and much more.

More data & statistics!

Need even more data sources? Check out the Barnard Library Social Science Data & Statistics Sources guide.

URBS 3992-001: Urban Studies Senior Seminar

Scan the Secondary Literature for Primary Sources

Empirical Reasoning Center (ERC)

Jennie Correia, Social Sciences Librarian