Provides access to a wide variety of economic, social, and political indicators including data sets from the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the OECD, Eurostat, the United Nations, the world's stock exchanges, and Zillow. Offers customized graphing and mapping.
The Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition Online is the definitive source of statistics and data about the United States and is a key resource for American history research from Colonial times to the present. This is an updated version of the print resource. This resource includes statistics from over 1,000 sources and includes more than 37,000 data series. It covers all data on social, behavioral, humanistic, and natural sciences including history, economics, government, finance, sociology, demography, education, law, natural resources, climate, religion, international migration, and trade - quantitative facts of American History. Major categories include: Population, Work and Welfare, Economic Structure and Performance, Economic Sectors, Governance and International Relations.
To find census records for individuals, use the HeritageQuest Online database which include images of the actual hand-written returns, and can be searched by name, location and other variables.
The Census Bureau does not release information about individuals to the public until after 72 years, to protect the confidentiality of the information. 1940 is the most recent Decennial Census for which the individual returns are available (see Availability of Census Records About Individuals). Originally the census taker filled out the information for each household. Starting with 1960 forms were mailed to households to be filled out by a resident.
The surviving original census forms were microfilmed in the 1940s and the scanned images in the HeritageQuest database were created from those microfilmed copies, displaying all original "defects" such as ink blotches and poor handwriting.
Different census products cover different time periods. Use this chart to understand what years of data are available for your research and where to find them:
| Data Source | Years Available | What It Covers | Where to Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decennial Census | 1790 – 2020 (every 10 years) | Population counts, basic demographics, housing units |
data.census.gov NHGIS (for historical data) IPUMS USA (for microdata) |
| ACS 1-Year Estimates | 2005 – present | Detailed social/economic data for populations of 65,000+ | data.census.gov |
| ACS 5-Year Estimates | 2009–2013 to present | Detailed data for all geographies, including small towns and census tracts |
data.census.gov Social Explorer |
| NHGIS | 1790 – present (varies by table) | Harmonized historical census tables and shapefiles | NHGIS.org |
| IPUMS Microdata | 1850 – present (selected years) | Individual-level census samples (anonymized) | IPUMS USA |
Note: For historical research, NHGIS and IPUMS USA are excellent resources. For most current data, use ACS 5-Year Estimates and Social Explorer.