Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.

Finding Alternative Sources for Federal Information & Data: Alternative Sources for Federal Government Data

Library Data Services

Library Data Services caters to researchers interested in working with data, mapping, texts, visualization, and technology. Many of these services are available online. Davis Library Data Services, located on the second floor of Davis Library, offers:

A computing lab with specialized software for GIS and data visualization & analysis.
Walk-in assistance provided by knowledgeable student consultants during set hours.
Consultations with specialists for more in-depth inquiries (by appointment).
Spaces for collaboration and presentation, complete with white boards and external displays.
Technology short courses and programs that promote digital scholarship.

Contact Us

This guide is actively being updated. Please contact us at library-data-services@unc.edu with questions, resources for inclusion, or assistance with locating the data you need.

Alternative Sources Available to Current Affiliates of UNC at Chapel Hill

The following proprietary resources provide government data, and are accessible to current affiliates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill only.

ESRI
Esri is the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping. Login required for data download.

PolicyMap
Access social, economic, health and demographic data about U.S. communities and markets in this online mapping tool. View data on map, in table or chart format, and download those data that are openly available. Reports provide a summary snapshot of an area: Community Profile, Community Health Profile, Rental Housing Report, and Housing Mortgage Report.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
SimplyAnalytics
Create maps, tables, and rankings from over 30,000 demographic, consumer spending, and psychographic variables. Covers the U.S. from states to neighborhood levels. Create your own optional account to save your searches and favorite variables and locations.

Data analysis and mapping tool with U.S. demographic, housing, employment, business, consumer spending, marketing data from government sources, EASI Analytics, Nielsen Scarborough, and SimmonsLOCAL Consumer Insights. Export data in spreadsheet or shapefile format, and export maps as images.

Note:Access is limited to 5 concurrent users.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Social Explorer
Provides web-based access to United States Census data from 1790 to the present, and to other U.S. and international data, with the ability to make tables and interactive maps easily or export data for analysis. Data include the most commonly used variables and geographies.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Sage Data
Access data on economics, crime, health, population, energy, the environment, and more in a single interface. Manipulate data; create charts, graphs, tables, maps. Data come from U.S. and international sources. For help, see the user guide.
Access:Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Alternative Sources for use by Anyone

The following resources currently hold government data, and are freely available to all users.

Census Reporter contains census data and the most recent American Community Survey
Data Rescue Efforts is a crowd-sourced list of data rescue efforts
ESRI contains census data and the American Community Survey in ArcGIS Online (login required for data download)
FRED contains economic data and demographic data

Census Reporter
Census Reporter is an independent project to make data from the American Community Survey (ACS) easier to use. We are unaffiliated with the U.S. Census Bureau.
Data Rescue Efforts (Google Doc)
These suggestions come from various sources, including IASSIST, RDAP, Data Curation Network, BlueSky, LinkedIn, and others. A librarian at a university is compiling it. I am keeping the document unshared for the moment, but I can add suggestions. Feel free to email iassistdata@gmail.com if you have suggestions.
FRED
Created and maintained by the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources. Browse by 14 different categories.
ICPSR
While much data at ICPSR is only available to member institutions (which UNC is), federal datasets are available to anyone.