TURB 324 Urban & Regional Economics -- Harrington: Data Resources

Starting points

U.S. Cities

American FactFinder
Source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Select the Regional tab to search data related to a specific state or municipality
Data USA
A joint project between MIT and Deloitte to understand and visualize the critical issues facing the United States in areas like jobs, skills and education across industry and geography

ProQuest Statistical Insight
Index to governmental and private statistical data.

Non-U.S. Cities

Global Metro Monitor
Data from the Brookings Institute. To locate previous reports, search "global metro monitor" as a phrase.

ProQuest Statistical Insight
Index to governmental and private statistical data.

Historical Data

Economic Census (historical)
Tables and PDFs of earlier Economic Censuses.
1967-people).

ProQuest Statistical Insight
Index to governmental and private statistical data.

American Community Survey
Ongoing population samples from the U.S. Census Bureau.
County and City Data for Washington State
Data from the Office of Financial Management.
Data.gov
Provides publicly accessible data and datasets generated and held by the Federal Government.
Data USA
A joint project between MIT and Deloitte to understand and visualize the critical issues facing the United States in areas like jobs, skills and education across industry and geography
Economic Census Data by Geography
While the Economic Census provides the greatest detail for the largest number of geographies, other Census economic programs provide data more frequently.
ICPSR
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research provides more than 500,000 digital files containing social science research data. To access data, you must link to the site through Google or Facebook.
OECD: Regional, Rural, and Urban Development
Country and regional data (including states within U.S.) on demographics, economics, environment, finance, and much more.

SimplyAnalytics
Create maps and tables of demographic, business, and marketing variables. (Formerly known as SimplyMap.)
Social Explorer
Maps and reports based on U.S. Census and other data sources, 1790 to present.

United States Census
Releases from the 2010 census have begun. This can be a complicated site to navigate. Try using American FactFinder as a way of getting started and be prepared to spend some time getting acquainted with it. Ask the reference staff at UW Tacoma Library for assistance.

What is collected and how it is collected will depend on the country. This means it might be hard to compare two different areas.
Locate statistical agencies of individual countries. The US Census Bureau has a list which can help you get started.
Locate English versions of country or city websites.
Google Translate can help figure some things out, especially if you just need to read the labels on a table.
More developed countries will usually have more robust statistical agencies and better English language sites
Larger cities might also have their own information pages, which could have some business/economy related statistics to attract businesses (the equivalent of a Chamber of Commerce?). These will likely be in the local language.

EuroStat
Source for European Union statistical datasets.
International Statistical Agencies
Country list provided by the U.S. Census Bureau
OECD: Regional, Rural, and Urban Development
Provides documents, statistics, and analysis for countries and regional issues of development.