FRED Economic Data
fred.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis database of over 800,000 economic time series from hundreds of sources.
Why it is useful
The definitive free source for economic data — every major indicator from unemployment to M2 money supply is here, updated in real time. The chart builder exports publication-quality graphs and the API makes it accessible to researchers and developers.
More in Research & Data
Other research & data you might not have heard of.
- Academic TorrentsDistributes large research datasets — from the Enron email corpus to machine learning benchmarks — via BitTorrent instead of a single slow server.
- FlourishA browser-based data visualization and storytelling tool with animated charts, interactive maps, and embeddable graphics for non-programmers.
- Harvard DataverseOpen research data repository from Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science, hosting 75,000+ citable datasets across every discipline.
- Google Dataset SearchA search engine specifically for finding datasets hosted across the web, using structured metadata to surface publicly available research data.
- DimensionsResearch database linking publications, grants, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents.
- ResearchRabbitFree citation-mapping tool that visualizes how academic papers connect — a strong free alternative to citation tools that institutions pay thousands for.