The following data sources were chosen for their wealth of information and the sensibility of how they formatted their data. We assembled a downloadable formats column to give you an idea of what kind of data formats you can expect to extract from each source.
Formats like xlsx, csv, and txt can be opened in Microsoft Excel. The json and xml files can be converted to csv using any online converter tool and then opened in Excel. The pdf files, can be opened in a pdf viewer like Mac’s native Preview or Adobe Acrobat Reader and copy-pasted into Excel. GeoJSON is a common form of map data format, and can be difficult to work with. There are also image files listed: png, tiff, gif, jpg. These refer to the option to download graphs as images from the corresponding sources.
| Source Name | Description | Downloadable Formats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FBI | Crime statistics in the US. Covers state, county and local crimes. | xlsx |
| 2 | Socrata Open Data | Collection of data from various governments including the US government. | csv, xlsx, json, pdf, rss, xml |
| 3 | GapMinder Data | Well-formatted data derived from a variety of open international sources, visualized in gapminder’s own tools | xlsx |
| 4 | Data.gov | The US federal, state and local governments collect lots of data. | csv, xlsx, txt, pdf |
| 5 | Plenar.io | Hub for open datasets | csv, GeoJSON |
| 6 | Tableau Public Datasets | List of free sample datasets | csv, xlsx |
| 7 | US Cities Open Data Census | Link to a table of available and similar open data for 89 cities | variety |
| 8 | Nate Silver’s Fivethirtyeight GitHub Repository | Data that supported various online articles for a news blog site | csv |
| 9 | World Bank | Free and open access to global development data | csv, xlsx, xml |
| 10 | World Health Organization | Global health observatory data repository | csv, xlsx, html, json, xml |
| 11 | EEPS NHANES Data | Data pre-downloaded and nicely formatted from National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey | copy directly from webpage and paste into MS Excel or Google Sheets |
| 12 | US Energy Information Administration | Energy generation and use | xlsx |
| 13 | CDC: High School YRBS | Youth Risk-Based Survey. Great data on US student injuries, alcohol & tobacco use, diet, sexual behavior, and obesity. | pdf, txt, xlsx |
| 14 | Kids Count | Annual data on kids, their families, their health, births. Collected by Annie E Casey Foundation | png, xlsx |
| 15 | WolframAlpha | An eclectic collection of data in all fields of STEM, art, music, history, which range from the length of roads in Spain to thermodynamic properties of elements. | gif, jpg, png, tiff |
| 16 | Tree of Life Project | Shows evolutionary trees for extinct and living creaures, also photo library | need to use snapshot |
| 17 | UN data | Entry point for international data collected by UN | xml |
| 18 | NASA planet fact sheet | Data on planets | copy directly from webpage and paste into MS Excel or Google Sheets |
| 19 | USGS Water Quality Data | US Geological stream data; lots of water quality data | png |
| 20 | Gun Violence Archive | The Gun Violence Archive is an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 1,500 media, law enforcement, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. | csv |