Finding Data

Government Agencies- collect data through various surveys and publish it in data tables, data files, data portals, or reports organized by sectors, which are represented by 2-6 digits for each sector. Data is collected through 3 types of censuses:

• Decennial: measures the population of housing count for every resident in the US,
• Economic: Measures the health of the Nation's economy by providing vital statistics about industries and businesses, and
• Census of Governments: Identifies the scope and nature of the nation's state and local government sector

• Pro: Easy accessibility of mass amounts of data
• Con: Mass amounts of data may be overwhelming at first to cipher. 

Data Archive/Repository-  a dedicated archive for storing and sharing digital data.

• Pro: provides easy access to research data. 
• Con: Often do not assess data set quality, which may allow issues with confidentiality, copyright, incomplete metadata, missing documentation, or unavailable formats.

Trade/Industry- collect data from members of various industries and fields. For example: electricians in a union. 

• Pro: Reports are often free
• Con: The data from the reports published are often not. Data may not be randomized sampled or statistically reliable, so be aware of potential biases.

International Organizations- collects statistics and data from countries that are members of the organization.

• Pro: Often shared for free. 
• Con: May contain inconsistencies.

Nonprofit Organizations- invests in mission-related data. 

• Pro: Valuable for filling in gaps in current government data and may (partially) be free.
• Con: Issues with potential biases

Private Data Vendors- compile public or private data into a database. Often used as a pointer to find original data and verify accuracy.

• Pro: Makes scattered data more available and accessible.
• Con: Often need paid access. Data could still have missing values, errors, inconsistencies, standardization, rounding, or selection bias.