46 Best Free Data Sources for content in the UK & US
The best data sources list offers the core sources in the UK & US as your starting point to find datasets of significant value for your content production.
Reliable and trustworthy data sources are essential to supplement content creation. Data sets offer inspiration for data-led content pieces and can be the foundation of digital PR campaigns.
Curations of data and statistics also make shareable content and can be used in content marketing across all channels including social media.
When writing your content, facts and figures from reliable data sources can elevate whatever topic you’re discussing.
This is where free data sources from trusted and credible sources comes in.
They can provide raw data or pre-sorted datasets from which you can draw interesting conclusions to support your content with.
We’ve created a curated list of the best free data sources that work as a starting point for you to supplement your content production with a focus on UK and U.S. sources.
46 of The Best Data Sources in the UK/US
Government Data Sources
Data collected by governments typically conforms to specific data quality standards, as it is used to inform policy-making and for running services effectively.
Statistic agencies working for governments have a responsibility to provide accurate, timely and credible information.
This can be collected through censuses, surveys, digital services and administrative records available only to the government to create robust data sets of entire countries.
Once collected, much of this data is openly available for the public to view and use, allowing you to use it as a trusted primary source within your content.
Data.gov.uk
Since 2010 data.gov.uk has been helping people to find and use open government data, and supporting government publishers to maintain data.
ons.gov.uk
The UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.
Data.gov
The home of the U.S. Government’s open data
UK Data Service
A comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data.
European Union Open Data Portal
The European Union Open Data Portal (EU ODP) gives you access to open data published by EU institutions and bodies.
Eurostat
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its mission is to provide high quality statistics for Europe.
US Census Bureau
The Census Bureau’s mission is to serve as the leading source of quality data about the nation’s people and economy.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
The U.S. government’s centralised statistics site which covers employment information, American spending habits, wage data and more.
FBI Crime Data Explorer
For those interested in data around crime statistics, then the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a range of tools and reports to help sort through their data and create visualisations.
CIA World Factbook
The CIA has compiled a compendium of reference information about different countries of the world, covering everything from history and population down to travel facts.
Worldwide Data Sources
Our world is becoming increasingly data-driven. With around 5.35 billion people now using the internet and our lives shifting more online, millions of terabytes of data are created every single day.
Global data is how you can get an idea of what life is like halfway around the world, providing a lens to see different countries through and affording us incredible insights into how humans live their lives.
Global political organisations and technology companies can harness big data that’s passively generated, as well as commissioning large-scale reports using their worldwide reach.
As this data is analysed to help create a better planet or understand the difficulties we face, you can use this to get read on the bigger challenges we face and bring wider perspectives to your content.
Google Public Data
The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand.
Google trends
Google Trends is a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search, that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris.
The World Factbook
The World Factbook, also known as the CIA World Factbook, is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency with almanac-style information about the countries of the world.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
One of the key tasks of UNODC is to produce and disseminate accurate drugs and crime statistics at the international level. UNODC also works to strengthen national capacity to produce, disseminate and use drugs and crime statistics within the framework of official statistics.
UNData
UNdata is an Internet search engine, retrieving data series from statistical databases provided by the UN System. UNdata was launched in February 2008.
Dataportals.org
A Comprehensive List of Open Data Portals from Around the World
UNICEF Data
Another United Nations agency, UNICEF have their own data portal which monitors data on a range of topics concerning the well-being of children, poverty and water.
Dataportals.org
A comprehensive list of open data portals from around the world you can search through, arranged by country so you can find relevant regional datasets.
Our World in Data
The flagship project launched by the Global Change Data Lab to advance education on global living conditions, making knowledge on big problems both accessible and understandable. It pulls from specialised institutes, research articles, international institutions and official government data into one place.
Earth Data
If you’re interested specifically in earth sciences and a more scientific analysis of the planet around us, then NASA’s publicly available data repository brings together their satellite observation data into one place.
Academic Data Sources
Many people have dedicated themselves to studying niche interests in the world of academia, drilling down into the data and research to produce new and interesting findings.
Not only do academic studies thoroughly investigate topics but they also typically contain their own first-hand data collected for the purpose of the study, along with a detailed methodology and peer-review for validation.
These attributes mean that academic data conforms to a high standard to help academics prove their skills and establish their reputations.
You can turn up academic data on a wide range of topics to support your content, but you will likely need to ensure it’s relevant to what you’re saying – rather than a tenuous link.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
Pew Research Center’s Internet Project
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, provides free data and analysis on the social.
Uk Data Service
The UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data resources.
CORE
Boasting the world’s largest collection of open access research papers, this not-for-profit aggregator indexes public global research in one place for you to search through.
Economic Data Sources
While economic data is typically used by governments and organisations to make top-level decisions, it can also be used to predict trends and provide an indicator of financial health for countries or specific markets.
This can be useful for content centred around comparative analysis or looking into topics that align with macroeconomics.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The IMF publishes a range of time series data on IMF lending, exchange rates and other economic and financial indicators. Manuals, guides, and other material on statistical practices at the IMF, in member countries, and of the statistical community at large are also available.
Google Finance
Google Finance was a website launched on March 21, 2006, by Google. The service featured business and enterprise headlines for many corporations including their financial decisions and major news events.
World Bank Open Data
This site is designed to make World Bank data easy to find, download, and use.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
With quarterly reports of corporate financials, this U.S. government data resource can be helpful if you’re seeking out financial data from a specific business.
Health Data Sources
Healthcare is a major industry which benefits from data collection and analysis, studying the health of everyone from local populations to the world over.
Many institutions have been gathering and studying health-based data for years to help identify trends that could help prevent diseases or viruses from spreading.
It also enables healthcare institutions to find areas to improve and track the efficiency of different treatments and care.
Searching through these datasets can turn up interesting facts and figures to support your content, or for creating health content around.
NHS Digital
NHS Digital (formerly HSCIC) uses information and technology to improve health and care.
Global Health Observatory (GHO)
Part of WHO, The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities.
US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments.
HealthData.gov
This site is dedicated to making high value health data more accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.
World Health Organization Data (WHO)
Founded in 1948, WHO is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting health and keeping the world safe. Their data portal has data dashboards and a data hub, as well as an annual report that can be useful for finding key health trends.
Global Health Observatory (GHO)
Part of WHO, The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities in a more accessible way.
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (US)
A program run by the University of Wisconsin Population Heath Institute with the aim of measuring the health of almost every single county across 50 states. Their work is based in the idea of health equality to ensure everyone has the opportunity to improve their health.
Public Opinion Data Sources
Understanding public sentiment on a topic can help you to gauge how to frame your content, as well as revealing unexpected attitudes towards aspects of our societies.
These datasets can be useful when looking at political content, beliefs around global events or writing about how human behaviours and cultures are changing.
In-depth interviews and focus groups are common methods used in acquiring public opinion data, as questions can be more qualitative than quantitative.
YouGov
YouGov is a community of 4 million people around the world who share their views. We analyse this information and publish selected findings every day on our website.
Gallup
We empower you to use data for real transformation. Through analytics and advice, we provide leaders with a road map for understanding and unlocking the full potential of individuals, teams and organizations.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys.
FiveThirtyEight
Owned by ABC News and originally created by Nate Silver, 538 has data dashboards and forecasts on public opinion and political topics based in the U.S.
Other Data Sources
There are many other data sources out there that bring together datasets on a variety of topics which could be useful for your content.
While these resources may take more effort to sift through in order to find trustworthy, relevant sources, you can uncover valuable niche data.
Kaggle
A community-sourced open dataset hub with cloud-based collaboration for data scientists, with a wide variety of both broad and niche datasets you can assess. You can filter these by user-ranked usability and size to find suitable datasets.
r/datasets (Datasets Subreddit)
Reddit brings together communities within its subreddit pages, with r/datasets being focused on data mining, analytics and knowledge discovery through crowd-sourced insights.
Statista
Find statistics, consumer survey results and industry studies from over 22500 sources on over 60000 topics on the internet’s leading statistics database.
Google Public Data Explorer
Google Public Data Explorer provides public data and forecasts from a range of international organizations and academic institutions including the World Bank, OECD, Eurostat and the University of Denver.
Google Dataset Search
Another Google tool for finding open datasets which you can analyse yourself if you have the means, which you can filter by last updated, usage rights and free data.
Open Data on AWS
Amazon Web Services hosts a repository for public datasets taken from different agencies, businesses and researchers. You can search through it using keywords, with each dataset having a detail page to help you figure out how useful it may be.
With all of these free data sources at your disposal, you can craft content with a competitive edge by weaving in reliable statistics and fascinating figures others may have overlooked.
There are more data sources out there but these are a trustworthy starting block for you to bolster your content with.
Once you’re more comfortable with finding reliable, robust datasets, then you can start carefully searching for your own sources to enhance your content.
If you’re looking for content production support, get in touch with us to see how Shellshock can help with your content and SEO strategy.