Research Guides: Community Development: Data sets + Map tools

Data sets

Census.gov Data
U.S. Census gateway to data sets.
HHUUD10: Historical Housing Unit and Urbanization Database 2010
provides housing unit estimates in consistent 2010 tract boundaries for every census year from 1940 to 2010 plus 2019 for the entire continental US
IPUMS USA
IPUMS USA collects, preserves and harmonizes U.S. census microdata and provides easy access to this data with enhanced documentation. Data includes decennial censuses from 1790 to 2010 and American Community Surveys (ACS) from 2000 to the present.
The Longitudinal Tract Data Base (LTDB)
provides public-use tools to create estimates within 2010 tract boundaries for any tract-level data (from the census or other sources) that are available for prior years as early as 1970 and now also for 2015-2019 and 2020.
Pennsylvania State Data Center
Located at Penn State Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania State Data Center provides social, political, and demographic data. Data available at the state, county, municipal, and congressional district level.
Policy Development & Research
Managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), HUD User hosts research, publications, and datasets in housing, community development, and more.

Mapping Tools

Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 This link opens in a new window
Note: Library of Congress also offers a publicly available collection of Sanborn Maps.
Digital Sanborn Maps provides access to large-scale maps of American towns and cities, including information such as the outline of each building, the size, shape and construction materials, heights, and function of structures, location of windows and doors.

Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network
View mosaics of selected historic maps, mixed with current maps and aerial photographs from Google in an interactive viewer.

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
Policy Map is a web-based Geographic Information System that provides a simple mechanism for visualizing data. Available data includes demographics, home sale statistics, health data, mortgage trends, school performance scores and labor data like unemployment, crime statistics and city crime rates.
PolicyMap is an online data and mapping application that provides access to over 10,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, income, crime, mortgages, health, jobs, and more. Data is available at many common geographic entities (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, metro area) as well as unique geographies such as school districts and political boundaries. Data is accessible in interactive maps, tables, charts, and reports and also may be downloaded.
Some PolicyMap datasets are from free government sources (including U.S. Census data), while other datasets are from proprietary sources, including detailed home sales statistics, school district performance from GreatSchools, locations of grocery stores and non-profit organizations, and Nielsen estimates and projections for demographic indicators.
SimplyAnalytics (formerly SimplyMap) This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 10
Simply Analytics is a web-based mapping application that permits users to create thematic maps and reports using demographic, business, and marketing variables. Maps can be exported as high-resolution images; data can be selected, sorted, and compared to build custom reports that can be exported to a spreadsheet.

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