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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.
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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.
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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.
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International Organizations- collects statistics and data from countries that are members of the organization.
- Pro: Often shared for free.
- Con: May contain inconsistencies.
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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
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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.
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