InfoGraphics & Data Visualization: Finding Data

Dataset Search enables users to find datasets stored across the Web through a simple keyword search. Dataset Search lets you find datasets wherever they’re hosted, whether it’s a publisher's site, a digital library, or an author's personal web page.

Data.gov was launched in 2009 and is managed and hosted by the U.S. General Services Administration. Under the OPEN Government Data Act, which is Title II of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, government data is required to be made available in open, machine-readable formats, while continuing to ensure privacy and security.

USAspending.gov is the official source for spending data for the U.S. Government. Its mission is to show the American public what the federal government spends every year and how it spends the money. You can follow the money from the Congressional appropriations to the federal agencies and down to local communities and businesses.

UNdata is a web-based data service for the global user community. It brings international statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single-entry point. Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources compiled by the United Nations (UN) statistical system and other international agencies.

At the World Bank, the Development Data Group coordinates statistical and data work and maintains a number of macro, financial and sector databases. Working closely with the Bank’s regions and Global Practices, the group is guided by professional standards in the collection, compilation and dissemination of data to ensure that all data users can have confidence in the quality and integrity of the data produced.

Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. The vision for data dissemination through data.census.gov is to improve the customer experience by making data available from one centralized place so that data users spend less time searching for data content and more time using it.

See how candidates and committees raise and spend money in federal elections. This financial data helps voters make informed decisions.

Public Data Sets on AWS provides a centralized repository of public data sets that can be seamlessly integrated into AWS cloud-based applications. Categories include Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Climate, Economics, Encyclopedic, Geographic, and Mathematics.

Pew Research Center regularly makes available the full datasets that underlie most of its reports. Survey datasets are cleaned to make them easier to use and to remove any information that could be used to identify individual respondents. Protecting confidentiality also means that some datasets of rare populations are never released (for instance, surveys of scientists or foreign policy experts).
To download datasets, you will need to create a Pew Research Center account (which will require you to fill out a short information sheet) and agree to Pew's Terms & Conditions for using Center data. This account will allow you to download datasets in the future, provide you with easy access to datasets that you have previously downloaded, and allow us to notify you when there is an update or change to the data. After you have signed up, you will not have to complete the information sheet again for future downloads.