Research Guides: Urban Planning & Public Policy: Statistics & Data

Statistics & Data

GOVERNING.com
USGS Selected Water Resource Abstracts
An incomplete database of USGS abstracts on the subject of water resource, dating from approximately 1977 onward and compiled from several sources.
Combined Health Information Database (CHID)
CHID is a bibliographic database produced by health-related agencies of the Federal Government. This database provides titles, abstracts, and availability information for health information and health education resources.
DataPlace
This Fannie Mae-sponsored site culls demographic, economic, social, and housing data from multiple government agencies and presents it in a simple, straightforward format. Users can create thematic maps and scatterplots to represent the information.
Explore U.S. Census Data
This invaluable resource provides access to thematic maps, community fact sheets, housing reports, and census data.
STAT-USA (UCI Access Only)
Business, economic and trade data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Includes National Trade Data Bank (NTDB) and its foreign market research reports.
Statistical Abstract of the World
Science Library (SL) Ref, HA 154 .S69 1997.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
LL, Latest in Ref, HA 202 .U5.
Older archived volumes from 1995+ available at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS111301
HUD USER
The Department of Housing and Ubran Development (HUD) clearinghouse offers information on housing and community development, datasets, and HUD regulations.
State of California Demographic Information
The official source of demographic data for state planning and budgeting in California, including census data and California population estimates and projections.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official web site.
USGS-GIS Education Resources
This site provides lessons, tools, and guidelines for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), software frequently employed by planners to manage, analyze , and disseminate geographic knowledge.
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Sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey's Education and Communications program.
Social Science Electronic Data Library -Sociometrics
Consists of 8 topically focused, high quality data collections in the following areas: AIDS/STD, Adolescent Pregnancy, Aging, the American Family, Child Well-being, Disability, Maternal Drug Abuse, & Complimentary & Alternative Medicine, as well as a Contextual Data archive. With > 350 data sets from 200 studies, it is a unique source of high quality health & social science data & documentation for researchers.
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UCI is a member of SSEDL so there is no cost for the data. Users of the Social Science Electronic Data Library have the option of downloading data sets from the data archive, or performing real-time online data analysis of the SSEDL data sets with MIDAS (Multivariate Interactive Data Analysis System).

Contextual data means data that describe the population, social, and economic characteristics of geographic areas, from census tracts to states, in which people reside or work. The contextual data archive consists of a series of files, each organized around a different geographic unit of analysis (such as census tracts, school districts, counties, states, etc.) Each file contains variables drawn from various sources, but having one common geographic unit of analysis. Support for this project is being provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Plugins required: Unzip software for Windows (such as Winzip or Pkunzip) or unzip software for Macintosh (such as Stuffit Expander or Zipit) to access downloaded data and User's Guides.

A Help button is embedded on the left of every screen. Also, a Read Me file link is available for each data collection.
City-Data.com
To post information or opinions or responses, one needs to register. Creators have collected and analyzed data from numerous sources to create as complete and interesting profiles of all U.S. cities as we could. We have over 74,000 city photos not found anywhere else, graphs of latest real estate prices and sales trends, recent home sales, home value estimator, hundreds of thousands of maps, satellite photos, stats about residents (race, income, ancestries, education, employment...), geographical data, state profiles, crime data, registered sex offenders, cost of living, housing, religions, businesses, local news links based on our exclusive technology, birthplaces of famous people, political contributions, city government finances and employment, weather, tornadoes, earthquakes, hospitals, schools, libraries, houses, airports, radio and TV stations, zip codes, area codes, air pollution, latest unemployment data, time zones, water systems and their health and
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monitoring violations, comparisons to averages, local poverty details, professionally written city guides, car accidents, fires, bridge conditions, cell phone and other towers, mortgage data, business storefront photos, a forum and a social network with 1,400,000 registered members and 25,000,000 posts, blogs, 5,000 user-submitted facts, individual property info for millions of houses, 30,000 exclusive local business profiles with photos, restaurant inspection results, and more demographics. If you ever need to research any city, zip code, or neighborhood for any reason, from considering a move there to just checking where somebody you know is staying, this is the site for you.
Open Data.gov
Data.gov, the central site for U.S. Government data, is an important part of the Administration’s overall effort to open government.

Open Data in the United States

A large number of cities, counties, and states have open data sites.
•Cities.Data.gov
•Counties.Data.gov
•States.Data.gov
Some international coverage is included. So far, there are 38 data sets for states, 46 for cities & counties, 46 international countries, 163 international agencies.
ProQuest Congressional*
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ProQuest Congressional (1789 to Present Day) provides full text access to congressional publications from the dawn of the Republic to present. Includes access to the full text of all versions of all U.S. bills and resolutions from 1789 to the present.
Data USA
Data USA is a comprehensive website and visualization engine of public US Government data and includes Viz Builder, and data about most sectors, industries, business, population/census, education, social indicators with allowances for maps and visualizations.

Manipulating & Charting Data

Google Blogging - Using Public Data to Create Charts
A rather fun way to find and manipulate public data and create interactive charts. This is a link to a Google blog entry on how to create a chart, then make it interactive using public data.

There are many available tools to aid one in manipulating, graphing and comparing data. These resources are in addition to the typical spreadsheet or bar graph.