Economics & Statistics: Finding Data

One of the most comprehensive economic data sources. Contains time-series data sets from multiple federal agencies as well as from private and international sources. Much of the data is available for small geographic areas.

The Census Bureau is the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy.

Times series for several hundred macroeconomic indicators, from 1988 to the present, for (mostly) Asian nations.

Macroeconomic indicators for members of and membership candidates for the European Union. Some data dates back to the late 1940's.

Contains over 100 common macroeconomic indicators for 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Contains economic data on a wide range of topics including gross domestic product (GDP) and related indicators, financial, manufacturing, and trade data.

Includes data on poverty, income distribution, public finance, countries' financial sectors, and countries' business climates. Use the DATABANK feature to access aggregate data.

Archival Federal Reserve Data that lets users choose a date in history and download a data set as it existed on that date. Some data sets as old as 1927.

Contains PDFs of government publications related to the economy. Data dates from the founding of the U.S. Department of Treasury in 1789.

Available data on individual commercial and savings banks, including data on various types of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities; amounts of deposits held in various categories; amounts of loans made in various categories; and amounts of loans that have been charged off. Search by individual bank or time period.

Data about credit unions, including information about amounts of loans, investments, and other assets; income and expenses; amounts of delinquent and charged off loans. From 1994 to present.

An annual survey in which the lending practices of large national banks are examined for changes in underwriting standards and credit risks. Published annually from 1995 to 2016.

Topics related to international finance in 40 member countries.

The Bank compiles and publishes a range of monetary and financial statistics. These include domestic banking, external finance, and international banking stats.

Banking survey from the perspective of households and small businesses. Includes access to banking services (ATMs and branches), number of adults with bank accounts and/or loans, and percentage of GDP deposited in banks. 2004-present for most countries.

Archival banking data for approx. 30 countries. Located under Finance --> Bank Profitability Statistics.

Census Bureau survey that provides estimates of value of shipments for approximately 3500 products manufactured.

Census Bureau surveys that provide statistics for products and shipments, inventories, orders, and consumption. Covers approximately one-third of the total manufactured products in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Available until 2011.

Census Bureau survey that provides data on the value of new orders, unfilled orders, shipments, and inventories from manufactures in the U.S. Data available from 1958 to present.

The United Nations Industrial Commodity Statistics Database provides annual statistics on the production of major industrial commodities by country. Data are provided in terms of physical quantities as well as monetary value. The online database covers the years 1995 to 2010.

Provides prices and price indices for agricultural products and minerals, from 1960 to the present.

List of economic surveys published by the US Census Bureau. Notable surveys include the Annual Services Report, Annual Retail Trade Report, Annual Wholesale Trade Report, Annual Survey of Manufactures, and Survey of Business Owners.

Data on publicly traded companies in the US. Includes information about revenues, cash flows, profits or losses, and executive compensation.

Offers information about individual firms, historical stock prices, and trading volumes.

Industry data available for the following countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United States.

Public sector section that disseminates data about tax revenues and expenditures for state and local governments and employment by federal, state, and local governments. Data available from 1992 to present.

Microdata about government spending, from 2000 to present. Includes amount of spending, name and address of recipient, federal agency in charge of spending, specific project or program, and dates of spending.

Detailed data about revenues and expenditures for European Countries

Internationally comparable government finance data.

"The Marketplace PUF includes plan and issuer level information for certified Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) and stand-alone dental plans (SADPs) offered to individuals and small businesses through the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Marketplace PUF includes data from states participating in the Federally Facilitated Marketplaces (FFM), which include State Partnership Marketplaces (SPMs), and states whose State-based Marketplaces rely on the federal information technology platform for QHP eligibility and enrollment functionality. The Marketplace PUF does not contain any data on plans offered in states that established and operate their own Marketplace (State-based Marketplace) and do not rely on the federal platform for QHP eligibility and enrollment functionality, nor does it contain enrollment or claims data."

This site gives you direct access to public data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Datasets include information about CMS use and payments, provider characteristics and initiatives, and beneficiary characteristics.

This site gives you direct access to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) official open data on Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Explore data about drug pricing and payment, enrollment, quality, eligibility, and state drug utilization.

From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Gathers data on the amount of money consumers and businesses spend on various types of health care and health insurance.

The primary source of data on the labor market in the U.S. Notable surveys include Current Employment Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Occupational Employment Statistcs, National Compensation Survey, Employment Projections, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Job Openings and Turnover Survey, and the Current Population Survey.

Longitudinal data set that follows workers over time. Can be searched by geography, NAICS code, and worker demographics.

Part of the United Nations. Some data is available as far back as 1945 for some countries. Data includes the size of the economically active population, the number of people working in various industries, unemployment rates, and occupational injuries.

From the U.S. Department of Commerce. Data includes national income and product accounts; industry accounts; regional accounts, and international accounts. Long time series are available for much of the data.

Contains GDP, gross national income (GNI), and value-added data for both countries and major regions of the world. From 1970 to present.

Provides estimates of national accounts data before 1950. Be aware when using this data that these estimates have varying degrees of accuracy!

From the U.S. Census Bureau. Major source for data about renters, homeowners, and mortgages.

Home value and rental data. Other metrics include forecasts, negative equity and affordability.

Disseminates data about real estate prices for more than 40 countries.

Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) are designed for international comparisons of consumer price inflation. Click on the data tree to access all HICP variables.

Publishes data on trade in services and intangible goods between the US and approx. 30 major trading partners. Covers 1986 to the present.

U.S. international trade data, includes historical annual data on trade between the US and the rest of the world, monthly and annual data by individual country and by specific products.

From the Dept. of Commerce. Contains quarterly and annual data on trade between the US and foreign countries from 1989 to the present. Data available at the state level.

U.S. International Trade Commission provides merchandise trade and tariff data on a monthly, quarterly, annual, or year-to-date basis. 1989-present.

Detailed data on the value and quantity of exports, imports, reexports, and reimports between approx. 200 countries and territories. 1962-present.

Provides data on trade, foreign direct investment, exchange rates, shipping, and other related topics.

The WTO Stats portal contains statistical indicators related to WTO issues. Available time series cover merchandise trade and trade in services statistics (annual, quarterly and monthly), market access indicators (bound, applied & preferential tariffs), non-tariff information as well as other indicators.

The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides vital information on a yearly basis about our nation and its people. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.

Full text access to AEA journals from 2012 on. Articles include data sets.

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and aecure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system.

As part of the Transparancy International web site. the Corruption Perceptions Index scores countries on how corrupt their public sectors are seen to be in an effort to reduce corruption worldwide.

Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 – 189. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. This index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic.

This web site is produced by the Economic History Association which was founded in 1940. Its purpose is to encourage and promote teaching, research, and publication on every phase of economic history, broadly defined, and to encourage and assist in the preservation and administration of the materials for research in economic history.

Economists at the Federal Reserve Board conduct innovative research on a broad range of topics in economics and finance. In addition to presenting their research to policymakers, Board economists share their research at academic conferences and publish it in peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly outlets.

From the Economist. Statistical information can be search by country or industry.

In March 2012, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke delivered a four-part lecture series about the Federal Reserve and the financial crisis that emerged in 2007. The series began with a lecture on the origins and missions of central banks, followed by a lecture that discussed the role and actions of the Federal Reserve in the period after World War II. In the final two lectures, the Chairman reviewed some of the causes of, and policy responses to, the recent financial crisis, focusing specifically on the actions of the Federal Reserve.
The lectures were offered as part of an undergraduate course at the George Washington University School of Business.

FinWeb.com is an independent source for personal finance information, education and advice. We have thousands of articles written to help individuals, families and small businesses better manage their money.

Their annual report, Economic Freedom of the World, uses 42 distinct pieces of data to measure economic freedom in 141 nations.

Gallup organization has measured and tracked the public's attitudes concerning political, social, and economic issues, including sensitive or controversial subjects.

The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations.

Links to some of the most useful and popular economics data sources, categorized by data type.

The Revenue Act of 1916 mandated the annual publication of statistics related to “the operations of the internal revenue laws” as they affect:

Individuals
All forms of businesses
Estates
Nonprofit organizations
Trusts
Investments abroad and foreign investments in the United States

Developed by Minnesota Population Center (MPC) this demographic data resource provides population data to thousands of researchers, policymakers, teachers, and students. All MPC data are available free over the internet.

Numbeo is the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 189 countries/territories for some or all of the years 1950-2010.

Working papers of varying quality. Often students are best served by following up on the author(s) to find published work by that person - sometimes older working papers have been subsequently revised and published. Some authors may make their articles (or a near-final version) available on their personal or departmental web pages.

World Development Indictors is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.