Research Guides: Data Visualization: Find Data

Swem Data Sources

Swem provides W&M students with access to several databases that provide useful data.

Statista
Statista 'gathers statistical information on over 600 industries from over 10,000 different sources, such as market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources.'
Historical Statistics of the United States
Historical Statistics of the United States provides historical data in the areas of population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations. Data can be downloaded as a graph, as a PDF, or in excel.
Polling the Nations
Poling the Nations provides users with access to almost 20K surveys, and more than 600K questions.
Sage Stats
Sage Stats provides users with a ton of easily-usable data. Students can sort by topic and search. Once users are within a dataset, they can filter it by demographic and geographical factors, and view it as a map, table, or chart.

Publicly Accessible Data Sources

Over the last decade, there has been a boom in the quantity of free and publicly-accessible data. Below is a list of several of the most useful data sources.

But keep in mid that often a simple google search is the best way to find the data you're looking for. Furthermore, organizations and academics may not have made their data available online, but may be willing to send a spreadsheet to an eager student -- it can't hurt to ask!

Data.gov
The U.S. Governments open data site has over 150K datasets on topics ranging from climate to education. You can download the data in CSV, RDF, JSON, or XML format.
General Social Survey
The General Social Survey (GSS) is the go-to for many academics. According to the GSS site, the survey contains a 'standard core of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest...it has tracked the opinions of americans over the last four decades'
United Nations Data
The United Nations provides access to datasets from many of its subsidiary bodies, with data on topics including health, climate change, gender issues, finance, refugees, and meteorology.
Google Trends
Google Trends allows you to see search volume for any term. You can narrow your search to periods of hours, days, weeks, months, and years, with data stretching back until 2004.
New York Times
The New York Times Article Search API allows users to search New York Times articles from 1851 to present.
USGS Earth Explorer
Earth Explorer is the place to go for remotely sensed data. It is quite user-friendly, and gives users access to a tremendous amount of data.