U.S. Census Bureau:  Leading collector and disseminator of information for the United States, covering a wide range of subjects including population, households, businesses, housing, income and poverty, health insurance and more. To focus on a particular geographic area, see especially American Factfinder.

Fedstats:  The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies.

National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building

DataPlace:  Interactive website sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation, providing extensive housing and demographic data at the community, regional, and national level. Provides mapping and other tools to assist you in analyzing, interpreting, and applying the data.

Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research, at the University at Albany: Extensive data, at the metropolitan, city and suburban level, and studies that provide information and analyses of how the racial and ethnic composition of metropolitan areas has shifted over the past two decades, and how increasing diversity is experienced at the level of local neighborhoods.

National Center for Health Statistics:  The Nation’s principal health statistics agency, providing information on topics such as on births, deaths, life expectancy, mental health, child health, behaviors as they relate to health, information about the health care system, historic trends, and health disparities.

National Center for Education Statistics: The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education, including information on school enrollment, student and teacher characteristics, achievement levels and trends, school spending, and many specialized studies. Allows for comparisons between school districts and, in some instances, individual schools.

National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach” Data:  Provides current data on affordability of rental housing units at the state and metro area levels.

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data:  Collected and prepared by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, HMDA provides extensive information on lending for home mortgages, including such items as name and type of lenders, mortgage amount, applicant characteristics such as race and income level, origination and denial rates, reason for denial, characteristics of the neighborhood in which mortgage would be used, and, in some cases, mortgage interest rate.