Roughly in order with the most aggregated data and easiest to use resources toward the top; more geographic specificity (but generally more difficult to use) toward the bottom.
| Product | Earliest date |
Latest date |
Smallest geography aggregated | Mapping utility included? | Download formats | Notes |
| Proquest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. | recent | present | Most indicators national Some by state |
No | Data: Excel Presentation format: PDF |
Paper / Historic paper back to 1879 at Docs C 3.134: |
| Historical Statistics of the United States | 1790 | 2000 | Most indicators national Some by state |
No | Data: Excel, CSV Presentation format: PDF |
Also in paper |
| LINC (Log Into North Carolina) | 1970 | present | County | No | No, just HTML tables (can be pasted into Excel) | North Carolina only, but most data comes from U.S. Census |
| Social Explorer | 1790 | present | Block Group for recent years; Block for 2010 Decennial Census | Yes (not all indicators can be mapped) | Data: CSV or tab delimited Presentation format: PDF, Excel Command files for stat packages (Stata, SAS, SPSS) |
1 survey at a time. |
| SimplyAnalytics (Formerly SimplyMap) |
1980 | present | Block Group | Yes |
Data: Excel, CSV, PDF |
Can choose variables from multiple surveys; data from earlier years is all normalized to 2010 geographies; Includes marketing data, too |
| NHGIS | 1790 | present | Block (since 1970) | No (but can download GIS boundaries) | Data: CSV or column delimited Boundaries: shapefiles |
Can choose variables from multiple surveys |
| Neighborhood Change Database | 1970 | 2000 | Tracts only | No (but can download GIS boundaries) |
Data: CSV, dBase |
Normalize census tract data from 1970-2000 to 2000 Census Tract boundaries; can choose data from multiple surveys |
|
(LTDB) Longitudinal Tract Data Base |
1970 | 2010 | Tract | No (but can download an ArcGIS geodatabase) | Data and boundaries: ArcGIS Geodatabase tables and layers | Normalize census tract data from 1970-2010 to 2010 Census Tract boundaries |
| data.census.gov | 2010 | present | Block | No | Data: CSV Presentation format: PDF, Excel, RTF |
Can choose variables from multiple surveys |
| Census FTP site | Pop:1980 | present | Block (some files) | No | Data: ASCII fixed width, CSV, DBF, and others | Selected raw Census data, some back to 1960s |
| Paper Census Reports | 1790 | 2010 | Block (some years) | Some have maps | N/A Most available online as scans (no tabular extraction). |
Browse by year, then spine title, then ToC; also lots of "non-population" aggregations |
 The four sources that follow include Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data which presuppose knowledge of statistical sampling and weighting. |
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| ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) | 1790 |
some CPS data after 2010; Census of Population and Housing through 2000 |
Aggregations: Block (since 1970) Microdata: areas 100,000+ |
No | Data: typically ASCII fixed width, sometimes with setup files for stat programs | Includes both aggregated data and Public Use Microdata Samples for selected years |
| ceprDATA | 2005 (ACS) | recent | areas 100,000+ population | No | Data: Stata and CSV | Stata files: Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) from ACS (Census) as well as some older CPS and SIPP data |
| Census Microdata Access | recent decades | present | Aggregations: Block Group Microdata: areas 100,000+ |
No | Data: Delimited ASCII, JSON | Includes Public Use Microdata, formerly available through the Data Ferrett interface. Data from ACS and CPS; more to be added. Allows custom cross-tabulations. How-to Materials for Using the Microdata Access |
| iPums USA | some back to 1850 | present | areas 100,000+ population | No | Data: ASCII fixed-width, with setup files for SAS, SPSS, Stata | Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) |
| The three sources that follow provide individual respondent data, useful for genealogy and for social or historical research requiring such detail. |
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| Ancestry Library Edition | 1790 | 1940 | Individuals, not aggregated | No | Images: JPEG | Includes some British and Canadian census and other genealogical resources |
| HeritageQuest Online | 1790 | 1940 | Individuals, not aggregated | No | Images: PDF or TIFF | Can search multiple years |
| Non-Population Schedules on Microform (unique Duke holdings) | 1850 | 1880 | Individuals and businesses, not aggregated | No | N/A | Originals held in Rubenstein Library |
