Research, Citation, & Class Guides: Economics: Finding Data

Finding Datasets Online

In addition to library resources, lots of economic data, domestic and international, is freely available online. This page contains links to just a few potential sources.

Census Data
The Census Bureau's data access point, including current data (back to 2010) from the decennial census, the American Community Survey, the Economic Census, and more.

Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau's webpage has information and statistics on regional, national, and international economic issues.
CEIC
"Explore the most complete set of 6.6 million time series covering more than 200 economies, 20 industries and 18 macroeconomic sectors - compiled from 2,200 sources worldwide."
Data.World
Called the "social network for data people," this relatively new site lets you sign up and share datasets with other researchers, or download datasets that may have been manipulated or changed to be just what you need for your own research.
Economagic
Find freely available economic time series data in one convenient location.
Eurostat
Statistical office of the European Union.
Federal Reserve Economic Data
Historical time series data for the U.S. economy which includes daily U.S. interest rates, CPI, PPI, GDP, monetary data, exchange rates, balance of payments and more. Data may be exported into Excel or text files.
GeoFRED
The same data as is available through FRED, the Federal Reserve Economic Data portal, but this page provides it nicely mapped in various geographies -- county, state, or international.
Global Financial Stability Report
This semi-annual report from the IMF's International Capital Markets Department reports on market developments and issues. The Statistical Appendix especially includes GDP figures, capital flows (direct investment, etc.), data on the securities markets, and much more.
International Financial Statistics
The International Monetary Fund's IFS database contains data on exchange rates, commodity prices, consumer prices, interest rates, and other economic indicators.

OECD iLibrary
The online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to analysis and data.
UN Comtrade
A commodity trade statistics database from the United Nations Statistical Division.
World Bank Open Data
Access to all available World Bank datasets, including World Development Indicators and Global Financial Development.

Data on Companies & Industry

IBISWorld
IBISWorld has excellent, detailed industry surveys for virtually any industry. View the tabs across the top for details on the state of the industry. View the farthest-right tab, Key Ratios, for key numbers.