Research Guides: Urban and Environmental Policy: Finding Data Sets & Tools

California & Los Angeles Data

California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal
Open Data Portal initiative in order to increase public access to one of the State’s most valuable assets – non-confidential health and human services data.
California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)
Provides health estimates for California's diverse population at the local level (census tracts, zip codes and cities). Requires free account login.
California Open Data Portal
California open data repository.
Los Angeles City Controller
LA is your source for information about the City of Los Angeles' expenditures, revenues, payroll, purchasing, special funds, and more.
Los Angeles City Planning
Los Angeles City Planning reviews project applications, processing entitlements, and approvals, administers the Zoning Code, promotes urban design principles, and manages the City’s historic resources. There are two Open Data tools under Resources: Open Data Portal and GeoHub.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Information and data regarding public health in Los Angeles and California.
Los Angeles City Open Data
Los Angeles City open data repository.
Los Angeles County Open Data
Open data repository for LA County
Neighborhood Data for Social Change
A project of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, NDSC is a free, publicly available online resource for civic actors to learn about the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing Los Angeles County neighborhoods through maps, charts, data analysis, and storytelling.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center
The Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC) is the archive of the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN). Its primary mission is to distribute data recorded or processed by the SCSN.
United States Census Bureau - Los Angeles Regional Office
The Los Angeles Regional Office is responsible for all data collection, data dissemination, and geographic operations under a new service area boundary. States within the Los Angeles Region's service area include Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Data Mapping Tools

Policy Map This link opens in a new window
Mapping and analytics tool with applications for research related to social sciences, urban studies, real estate and housing analysis, community development, public administration, public health, political science, education, business, economics, statistics, geography and more.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information.

My Community Explorer (U.S. Census)
An equity tool to identify underserved communities.
Mapping L.A.
Demographic data visualized by neighborhood from the LA Times
LAPD Crime Mapping
Interactive maps of crimes by type and neighborhood Sept 2011-Present.
Food Access Research Atlas
Presents an overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility. Offers census-tract-level data on food access that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.

Public Policy Research

The American Enterprise Institute
AEI is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise.
The Brookings Institute
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. with a mission to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan educational institute dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action.
Center for Economic Policy Research
CEPR is Europe’s leading network of Economic Policy Researchers.
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Policy research on children and families. 1979-Current.

CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy - Data This link opens in a new window
CLASP conducts analysis of national, state, and local data to accurately document racial disparities and disparate policy impacts by race to inform our policy recommendations and advocacy.

Institute for Research on Poverty
IRP researches the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. We bring together social scientists from across research disciplines such as economics, sociology, social work, and demography. The result is a well-rounded understanding of poverty issues.
Measure of America-SSRC Project
Measure of America provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and stimulating fact-based dialogue about issues we all care about: health, education, and living standards.
Neighborhood Data for Social Change
A project of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, NDSC is a free, publicly available online resource for civic actors to learn about the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing Los Angeles County neighborhoods through maps, charts, data analysis, and storytelling.

Pew Research Center This link opens in a new window
A nonpartisan fact tank that publishes public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.
Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Over 12 million working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media from more than 35,000 municipalities, IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.

RAND Corporation
Research reports on Children and Families, Education and the Arts, Energy and Environment, Health Care, Infrastructure and Transportation, International Affairs, Law and Business, National Security, Public Safety, Science and Technology.
Southern Poverty Law Center
A nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.
Urban Institute
"At Urban, we believe that data and evidence are essential to shaping a more inclusive, equitable, and just society."

Public Data Sets

U.S. Census Bureau This link opens in a new window
Leading source of up-to-date demographic data about the United States people and economy.

PUMS Data
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files are a set of untabulated records about individual people or housing units.
American Immigration Council
State-by-state immigration data and facts.
American National Election Studies
ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.

CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy - Data This link opens in a new window
CLASP conducts analysis of national, state, and local data to accurately document racial disparities and disparate policy impacts by race to inform our policy recommendations and advocacy.

Data.gov
United States Government's open data site
FRED Economic Research
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Download, graph, and track 672,000 US and international time series from 89 sources
General Social Survey
Contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings.
Hate Map | Southern Poverty Law Center

ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
IPUMS This link opens in a new window
Database of census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. Users must create a free account to access.

National Center for Education Statistics
The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
State of Working America Data Library
Provides researchers, media, and the public with easily accessible, up-to-date, and comprehensive historical data on the American labor force. It is compiled from Economic Policy Institute analysis of government data sources. Use it to research wages, inequality, and other economic indicators over time and among demographic groups.
UN Statistics Department
Compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develop standards and norms for statistical activities, and support countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical systems.
World Bank
The World Bank provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe.

Urban and Environmental Policy

Social Sciences & Data Literacy Librarian

California & Los Angeles Data

Data Mapping Tools

Public Policy Research

Public Data Sets

Citing Datasets