Research Guides: Data Sources: Data Sources for Instructional purposes

Data Sources for Instructional Purposes

This list contains data products that are especially valuable for instructional purposes.

These sources are particularly useful for teaching due to their presentation, ease of access, relatively "clean" condition of the data, and topical and subject diversity represented. Many of these sources provide fulsome documentation, detailed code books, and contextualizing materials, and some even provide pre-made lessons that go along with the datasets. These collections have been licensed by the NYU Libraries and have datasets that go beyond what is freely available on the web in general, with resources that have been selected, manipulated, and/or harmonized to increase their utility.

Nearly all of these sources offer download of data in at least .csv or .xls format, and often in a statistical package-ready (SPSS, STATA, etc.) format.

Sage Data This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This easy-to-use resource contains datasets sourced from reputable public and private organizations, helpfully arranged into topics across 16 broad subject areas, including education, population and income, industry, commerce, and trade, housing and construction. Datasets can be filtered and manipulated and downloaded for offline analysis or lesson building.
This database is currently unavailable. The vendor is working on restoring access.
Statista This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Statista aggregates data on markets, industry, politics, economics and population. Sources include trade publications, market and opinion research institutions, government sources, business and economic databases, reference publications, media sources and scholarly articles. It has an international scope and covers over 600 industries, and includes data from hard-to-find industries like sports, entertainment, health, and pharmaceuticals. Sources are downloadable for offline analysis.
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) This link opens in a new window
ICPSR is a data repository that includes curated data sets drawn from the social sciences disciplines. In addition to detailed codebooks and descriptions of methodology, it offers multiple file format downloads for offline analysis. ICPSR is one of the only tools that provides variable-level searching, which allows for discovery of interesting and unique datasets. ICPSR also includes data-driven learning guides for many of the datasets included, which can help instructors incorporate these sources into teaching.
Users need to login to access. Use the single sign-in with Google and when prompted, use NetID credentials.
Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Statistical Insight provides indexing and abstracts for federal, state, and international statistical publications as well as selected business and professional publications containing statistics. This resource includes all content from a number of classic statistical indexes like the American Statistics Index.
Sociometrics This link opens in a new window
The SSEDL contains datasets which are organized into nine topical data archives centered around health and the family: AIDS/STDs, Disability, the American Family, Adolescent Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention, Aging, Maternal Drug Abuse, Child Well-Being and Poverty, Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Contextual (Geographic) Data. Sources are downloadable and include full codebooks and documentation.
To access the data in the Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL), click on "Browse" and select "Data."
SAGE Research Methods Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
In addition to classic methodological texts, this database contains a selection of high-quality datasets and examples of analysis. All datasets come with documentation and overviews, and are downloadable for offline analysis.

MOMA Art Exhibits and Curators
This exhibition index dataset was compiled by a project team from the MoMA Archives as part of their work to preserve, describe, and open to the public over 22,000 folders of exhibition records dating from 1929 to 1989 from its registrar and curatorial departments.
Data-Planet Data Basics - Understanding Statistical Terminology
Data-Planet Data Basics provides a glossary of statistical terms and concepts for reference.

This list contains a highly selective list of governmental and quasi-governmental data sources.

There are many other governmental sources of data, so please see our full guide to Data Finding for more suggestions.

SELECTED FEDERAL DATA AND STATISTICS

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer provides access to U.S. Census data dating back to 1790. Users can interact with social explorer via tables or maps. All materials are downloadable for offline analysis in multiple formats.
To access Social Explorer, create a user account after signing in to NYU's SSO. If you have questions about authenticating your NYU Social Explorer account from off-campus, please contact Data Services.
Data.Census.Gov This link opens in a new window
Data.Census.Gov, the interface that replaces American FactFinder, is the portal to US Census data and includes data from the American Community Survey, Population Estimates, Economic Census, and Annual Economic Surveys. Users can generate simple visualizations, extract reports, and explore census data by theme or topic.
Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (1993-present) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. The Census Bureau ceased production of the Statistical Abstract in 2012; newer versions are compiled and distributed by ProQuest. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations. Most materials are downloadable for offline analysis.

National Center for Health Statistics
"The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)... offers downloadable public-use data files through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) FTP file server. Users of this service have access to data sets, documentation, and questionnaires from NCHS surveys and data collection systems." (From the site)
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data
These data provide insights into the performance of schools eligible to receive federal financial aid, and offer a look at the outcomes of students at those schools. The dataset includes indicators on earning potential after college, average student debt, and more. It comes with a robust API.

SELECTED NEW YORK CITY DATA AND STATISTICS

New York City Population FactFinder (NYC PFF) This link opens in a new window
New York City Population FactFinder (NYC PFF) is a discovery portal for sample U.S. Census and American Community Survey data. Data is available at the census tract or Neighborhood Tabulation Area level.

NYC Open Data
NYC Open Data makes the wealth of public data generated by various New York City agencies and other City organizations available for public use.
Bytes of the Big Apple
New York City zoning features, boundaries, political and administrative districts, and PLUTO parcel data.

SELECTED INTERNATIONAL DATA AND STATISTICS

UN Data
UNData contains over 55 million data points covering a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is the online portal for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The iLibrary includes book collections, policy reports, statistical abstracts, and the OECD.Stat tool, with which users can create custom extracts from the OECD data warehouse.

World Development Indicators
500 time series indicators for 148 countries and regional and income groups, with basic indicators for a further 62 countries. Time series for most indicators cover 1960 to the present.

Political Risk Yearbook and CountryData This link opens in a new window
Political Risk Yearbook provides political risk reports for the current year for many countries. CountryData allows users to generate exportable tables with political risk rankings and economic indicators for current and historical years, as well as current forecasts, for various countries.
Country Data is available on campus only. Use NYU VPN for off-campus access.

Other interesting datasets

There are a number of other datasets of interest listed here that particularly lend themselves to teaching advanced quantitative analysis and data manipulation techniques.

Gallup Analytics This link opens in a new window
Users can access Gallup's U.S. Daily tracking and World Poll data to compare residents' responses region by region and nation by nation to questions on topics such as economic conditions, government and business, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, and education. Materials are downloadable as .xls for offline analysis.

RealtyTrac
Data from RealtyTrac covers information on property foreclosures that have taken place in the United States between January 1, 2005 and January, 2016. The data, drawn from information released in public tax records across the United States, is not available to the public. It includes information on property characteristics, location, ownership, and use.
Stanford Open Policing Project
On a typical day in the United States, police officers make more than 50,000 traffic stops. This dataset contains location and demographic data on those stops for many states in the U.S.

Subject-specific sources of data. Click through to begin exploring.

These sources contain pre-built instructional materials.

There are a handful of resources that specialize in presenting datasets along with added instructional materials. These products contain contextual documentation and often lesson plans and curriculum building tools.

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) This link opens in a new window
ICPSR has a special section devoted to teaching resources. These resources use ICPSR's vast repository of data as raw materials to teach concepts and methods in the social sciences. Click on "Teaching and Learning with ICPSR" or go directly to their teaching resources, or go to their Resources for Teachers list for links to videos and other resources for instructional purposes.
Users need to login to access. Use the single sign-in with Google and when prompted, use NetID credentials.

Data-Planet Data Basics
Data Basics is a module in Data-Planet that provides resources and examples for citing datasets and statistics when incorporating them into research.

SAGE Research Methods Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
SAGE Research Methods datasets collection includes datasets alongside sample lessons on various methods and topic areas, and high-quality, short videos to introduce research concepts. Click on "Content" and then "Datasets" or "Videos."

TeachingWithData.org
TeachingWithData.org is a portal where faculty can find resources and ideas to reduce the challenges of bringing real data into post-secondary classes. Using real data is a great way for students to become more engaged in the content of a course, but significant barriers, largely in terms instructor preparation, exist that can make using data a challenge.
Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE)
CAUSE is a national organization whose mission is to support and advance undergraduate statistics education. They offer a number of curriculum and building block modules to support learning.
DataCarpentry
DataCarpentry has a variety of lessons and sample datasets designed to help instructors teach with quantitative software.
Berkeley SDA Archive
Interact with microdata from several national surveys using the online Survey Documentation & Analysis (SDA) interface - includes the General Social Survey, American National Election Studies, and others.
NYU Data Services Analysis Guide to choosing a statistical test
This page can help you choose an appropriate statistical test for data with one dependent variable. It includes links to examples on how to run these tests in SPSS, Stata, SAS, R and MATLAB.
UCLA/IDRE Data Analysis Examples
"These pages contains examples (often hypothetical) illustrating the application of different statistical analysis techniques using different statistical packages. Each page provides a handful of examples of when the analysis might be used along with sample data, an example analysis and an explanation of the output, followed by references for more information. These pages merely introduce the essence of the technique and do not provide a comprehensive description of how to use it" (from the site).

LinkedIn Learning This link opens in a new window
An online video training library with over one hundred thousand expert-led videos and thousands of courses. lynda.com includes a number videos on data cleaning and analysis, as well as many common software platforms like Excel. Access to lynda.com is available in the Academics and Worktabs of NYUHome as well as through this link.
Formerly Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning provides the same services and access to resources via the LinkedIn platform.

This resource requires an NYU NetID and password

Tableau Public Data Resources
This page contains a small collection of sample datasets to use to practice visualization in Tableau Public and other platforms.
Crowdsourcing Guidelines for a Successful Data Event
This OSF project page collects case studies of research data-related events hosted or co-hosted by academic libraries. Case studies collected for the panel describe four flavors of event: the Center for Open Science Workshop on Reproducible Research, Data Carpentry, Software Carpentry, and Day of Data. These events are potentially useful for developing learning opportunities with data.
ARDA Teaching Tools
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) offers a range of teaching tools with modules, instructional datasets, lesson plans, and assignments for syllabi.
data-8
data-8 is a introduction to Data Science course at UC Berkeley. The course combines three perspectives: inferential thinking, computational thinking, and real-world relevance. Given data arising from some real-world phenomenon, how does one analyze that data so as to understand that phenomenon? All course materials, including slides, are posted online.
PolicyMap Curriculum Resources
PolicyMap is a data extraction tool that offers a range of public demographic data. These resources include several discipline-based exercises, sample data sets, lesson plans, and ideas for teaching with data.
New York Times Reporter Training class
These materials include sample datasets and exercises that the NY Times uses to train new reporters on the basics of data cleaning, manipulation, and visualization with Google Sheets.

Data Sources

General Information

Service Desk and Chat

Data Sources for Instructional Purposes

This list contains data products that are especially valuable for instructional purposes.

This list contains a highly selective list of governmental and quasi-governmental data sources.

Other interesting datasets

These sources contain pre-built instructional materials.