Public Policy: Data Resources for Policy Research

The Census Bureau's mission is to serve as the nation's leading provider of quality data about its people and economy.

The American Community Survey (ACS) helps local officials, community leaders, and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. It is the premier source for detailed population and housing information about our nation.

ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) eLibrary simplifies analysis and research with direct access to the IMF’s periodicals, books, working papers and studies, and data and statistical tools. You will find information and perspective on macroeconomics, globalization, development, trade and aid, technical assistance, demographics, emerging markets, policy advice, poverty reduction, and so much more.

Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources compiled by the United Nations (UN) statistical system and other international agencies.

The Data Catalog is designed to make World Bank's development data easy to find, download, use, and share. It includes data from the World Bank's microdata, finances and energy data platforms, as well as datasets from the open data catalog.

Did you know, Google has a specific search engine to locate publicly available datasets for research?