Data.gov
Verified working Aug 3, 2026
A central search hub for hundreds of thousands of U.S. government datasets.
Data.gov is the U.S. federal government’s public catalog for open datasets, tools, and related resources. It helps researchers, journalists, developers, policymakers, and the public find government data for analysis, apps, visualizations, and civic transparency work.
Why it stands out
- Official U.S. government open data entry point with .gov provenance
- Very large cross-agency catalog rather than a single-department database
- Includes geospatial discovery alongside general dataset search
- Provides public catalog metrics for transparency about dataset volume and activity
- Connects datasets with open-government guidance, case studies, and skills resources
Good to know
- Focused on U.S. government data, not international, state-only, commercial, or academic datasets
- Some catalog and metrics functions are handled on related sites such as catalog.data.gov and data.gov/metrics
- Dataset freshness, formats, and completeness can vary by the agency that publishes each record
Find federal datasets for research or reporting Locate government data for web and mobile applications Discover geospatial datasets and agency-specific data sources Track catalog metrics such as dataset counts, age, and distribution
Searchable catalog with 363,000+ datasets Views for most-viewed, recently added, organization-based, and geospatial datasets Links to data metrics and agency-level usage information Guidance and resources for open government data management
Alternative listings
Harmonized U.S. census microdata for research across centuries.
Open Data & Research PortalsIPUMS USA provides cleaned and consistently documented U.S. census and American Community Survey microdata for researchers. It covers decennial census data from 1790–2010 and ACS/PRCS data from 2000 onward, with tools for selecting variables, building extracts, downloading data, and analyzing data online.
0 votesVisit siteA UK government gateway for public datasets and data guidance.
Open Data & Research Portalsdata.gov.uk is the UK government’s public data portal, now framed around the National Data Library. It brings together curated dataset collections across areas such as business, environment, government, property, people, transport, and early years, while still linking to the original open data directory search. The site also includes a data manual for public-sector data management, sharing, standards, privacy, and technical guidance.
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