Finding and using research datasets

This is a repository of community published datasets and code. It offers access to free graphics processing units (performance computing) which can be accessed via a user interface that allows you to explore the datasets in either Python or R and write your own literate programming worksheets using markdown.

This is a data service compiled by the United Nations statistics division and other international agencies. Application areas include agriculture, communication, development assistance, education, energy, environment, finance, gender, health, labour market, manufacturing, national accounts, population and migration, science and technology, tourism, transport and trade. The data is available to download in csv format alongside other formats. It is recommended to click on “Topics” on the explorer page to search for data by application area.

This is a foundation with the premise of fighting misconceptions and promoting a fact-based worldview. Time series data are available under the categories of communication, economy, education, energy, environment, health, infrastructure, population, society and work. They also host data on World Development Indicators copied from the World Bank. Be sure to follow the guidance on attributing the original data source and the Gapminder foundation itself. The data itself can be accessed at the page https://www.gapminder.org/data/, and details on how missing data have been handled is available at the page https://www.gapminder.org/data/documentation/.

This contains data on health status indicators to monitor progress towards the health objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. Data is available to download in csv format, alongside other formats.

This contains charts of progress against global development indicators, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. A valuable source of examples of good data visualisation practice. Links are provided to other websites that host the original data sources.

This is an agency of the European Union that aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policymaking agents and the public.

The statistical office of the European Union, co-ordinating statistical activities across the European Commission. Maintain an inventory of statistical data collections of conventional indicators. And have a number of visualisation tools and educational resources.

This is a search engine for datasets across a wide range of online repositories. Its mission is also to foster a data sharing ecosystem that will encourage data publishers to follow best practices for data storage and publication, and to allow scientists to show the impact of their work through citation of datasets that they have produced.

A repository of UK census and related data. Note that it is necessary to request access to many of the UK Data Service datasets, so please plan accordingly.

UK’s recognised national statistical institute. Collect and publish statistics related to economy, population and society in the UK, and conduct the census in England and Wales every 10 years.