20 Best Datasets for Data Visualization in 2024

The choice of datasets is crucial for creating impactful visualizations. Demographic data, such as census data and population growth, help uncover patterns and trends in population dynamics. Economic data, including GDP and employment rates, identify economic patterns and business opportunities. Environmental data, like climate change and pollution levels, contribute to scientific research and policy formulation and so on. 

The dataset selection depends on goals, context, and domain, with considerations for data quality, relevance, and ethics. In this article, we will discuss the best datasets for data visualization. Alongside, top Business Intelligence and Visualization courses will support you in representing data through insightful visuals to support organizational goals.

List of Free Datasets for Data Visualization

Below mentioned are some of the best datasets for data visualization which are also useful for data visualization projects with datasets:

1. BuzzFeed
2. The U.S. Census Bureau
3. FiveThirtyEight
4. Singapore Public Data
5. ProPublica
6. Earth Data
7. The GDELT Project
8. AWS Covid Job Impacts
9. Twitter Edge Nodes
10. The Open Data Institute
11. Urban Atlas European Environmental Agency

Top Datasets for Data Visualization in 2024

Here is a detailed overview of datasets for visualization projects providing valuable insights with free source:

1. BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed is a popular media organization that not only provides entertaining content but also offers publicly accessible datasets. Considered as one of the best datasets for data visualization. These datasets cover a variety of topics, including politics, entertainment, and social media trends. By leveraging BuzzFeed's datasets, data visualization enthusiasts can explore and visualize trending topics, analyze social media sentiment, and gain insights into various aspects of popular culture.

2. The U.S. Census Bureau

Hanlon Financial Systems Center

The U.S. Census Bureau is a valuable source of demographic and socioeconomic data about the United States. They provide comprehensive datasets that offer detailed information about the population, housing, employment, and other key indicators. These datasets can be used to create visualizations that highlight population trends, income distributions, educational attainment, and more. The Census Bureau's data is particularly valuable for creating geospatial visualizations at various geographical levels, enabling us to understand and visualize patterns and disparities across different regions.

3. FiveThirtyEight

ABC News

FiveThirtyEight is a data-driven journalism website known for its in-depth analysis of politics, sports, and other topics. They provide datasets covering a wide range of subjects, including election results, sports statistics, public opinion surveys, and more. These datasets offer rich opportunities for creating insightful and engaging visualizations that can help us understand complex phenomena, identify trends, and make data-driven predictions.

4. Singapore Public Data

LinkedIn

The Singapore government has embraced an open data initiative, making a vast amount of data freely accessible to the public. The Singapore Public Data provides access to various datasets related to the country's economy, demographics, transportation, health, and more. These datasets can be used to create visualizations that showcase Singapore's development, urban planning, and social trends. By visualizing this data, we can gain insights into the city-state's progress, challenges, and opportunities.

5. ProPublica

Online News Association

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on investigative journalism. They offer datasets related to various topics such as healthcare, criminal justice, and government accountability. ProPublica's datasets can be used to create visualizations that shed light on important societal issues, promote transparency, and drive meaningful change. By visualizing ProPublica's datasets, we can uncover patterns, disparities, and systemic problems that might otherwise go unnoticed.

6. Earth Data

NASA Earthdata

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides a vast collection of datasets related to Earth science and remote sensing. These datasets cover areas such as climate change, weather patterns, environmental monitoring, and more. By visualizing Earth Data, we can create captivating visual representations of our planet's dynamics, track changes over time, and understand the impact of human activities on the environment.

7. The GDELT Project

The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) Project is a comprehensive repository of news articles from around the world. It captures information on various events, emotions, and narratives reported in the media. By tapping into GDELT's datasets, data visualization practitioners can uncover global patterns, explore media coverage, and analyze sentiment on diverse topics. Visualizing GDELT's datasets can help us understand the global context of events, identify biases, and gain insights into the narratives shaping our world.

8. AWS Covid Job Impacts

The AWS Covid Job Impacts dataset provides insights into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on job markets. It offers data on job postings, hiring trends, and labor market dynamics during the crisis. Visualizing this data can help us understand the economic repercussions of the pandemic, track recovery progress across different regions and industries, and inform policy decisions. By visualizing the AWS Covid Job Impacts dataset, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of the labor market landscape and the challenges faced by individuals and businesses.

9. Twitter Edge Nodes

Twitter provides datasets that contain anonymized information about user interactions and trends. These datasets, known as Twitter Edge Nodes, enable researchers and data visualization professionals to explore social network dynamics, study user behavior, analyze real-time trends, and gain insights into the collective conversations happening on the platform. By visualizing Twitter Edge Nodes data, we can uncover patterns of information flow, identify influential users, and understand the dynamics of online communities.

10. The Open Data Institute

Allegory Agency

The Open Data Institute (ODI) is an organization that promotes the use and accessibility of open data. They provide datasets covering various domains, including transport, health, education, government spending, and more. ODI's datasets offer opportunities for creating visualizations that promote transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making. By visualizing ODI's datasets, we can uncover patterns, assess the effectiveness of public policies, and empower citizens with actionable information.

11. Urban Atlas European Environmental Agency

The Urban Atlas, developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), provides land use and land cover datasets for European cities. These datasets offer detailed information on urban areas, green spaces, transportation networks, and more. Visualizations using Urban Atlas data can provide insights into urban development, planning, environmental sustainability, and the impact of human activities on urban ecosystems. By visualizing the Urban Atlas data, we can understand the spatial distribution of urban features, identify areas for improvement, and support evidence-based urban planning.

Other Best Datasets for Data Visualization

Apart from the datasets we've mentioned above, here is a list of more datasets for data visualization: 

1. IMDB Movies Dataset
2. Airbnb Listings
3. Young People Survey Dataset
4. Human Resources DataSet
5. India – Trade Data
6. UCI Machine Learning Repository
7. /r/datasets
8. AWS Public Data sets
9. Hotel Booking Demand Data

How to Get Data for Data Visualization?

Data visualization is a powerful tool for gaining insights, communicating information effectively, and making data-driven decisions. To create meaningful and impactful visualizations, you need relevant and reliable data. In this guide, I will outline various methods to obtain data for data visualization purposes.

• Open Data Portals: Open data portals are website datasets for data visualization, that provide free access to a wide range of datasets collected by government agencies, research organizations, and other institutions. Examples include data.gov, data. world, and the World Bank's Open Data. These portals offer datasets on various topics, such as demographics, economy, healthcare, environment, and more. You can search and download datasets from these platforms, ensuring you comply with any licensing or attribution requirements.
• Web Scraping: Web scraping involves extracting data from websites. You can use specialized tools like Beautiful Soup (Python) or import.io to scrape websites and collect relevant data for visualization. However, be mindful of the website's terms of service and ensure you're not violating any legal or ethical boundaries. It's crucial to respect website owners' policies and not overload their servers with excessive requests.
• Public APIs: Many organizations provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow developers to access and retrieve data programmatically. These APIs often provide structured and up-to-date data. Examples of popular APIs include Twitter API, Google Maps API, and GitHub API. You can explore the documentation and usage guidelines provided by the API provider to retrieve data that suits your visualization needs.
• Surveys and Questionnaires: Conducting surveys and questionnaires is a great way to gather specific data tailored to your visualization objectives. You can design and distribute online surveys through platforms like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey. Ensure your survey questions are clear, concise, and relevant to the insights you aim to visualize. Promote your survey through various channels, such as social media, email newsletters, or targeted online communities.
• Data Subscriptions and Marketplaces: Numerous commercial platforms offer access to high-quality datasets for a fee. These platforms curate and maintain datasets across various domains, providing comprehensive and reliable data sources. Examples include data providers like Kaggle, Datastream (by Refinitiv), and Bloomberg Terminal. Consider your budget and specific data requirements when exploring these options.
• Data Cleaning and Integration: Sometimes, the data you require for visualization might already exist within your organization but may be scattered across different systems, databases, or file formats. In such cases, you'll need to consolidate, clean, and integrate the data before visualization. Data cleaning involves removing inconsistencies, handling missing values, and resolving data quality issues. Tools like OpenRefine and pandas (Python library) can assist in this process.
• Collaborations and Partnerships: Forge partnerships or collaborations with other organizations or individuals that possess the data you need. This can be universities, research institutes, NGOs, or industry associations. By working together, you can access their datasets, combine expertise, and create mutually beneficial visualizations. Ensure proper data sharing agreements are in place to protect the interests and privacy of all parties involved.
• Personal Data Collection: In some cases, you might need to collect data yourself through primary research methods. This can involve conducting experiments, observations, interviews, or field surveys. While collecting your data offers flexibility and customization, it requires careful planning, ethical considerations, and appropriate data management practices to maintain data integrity and privacy.

Remember, regardless of the method you choose, it is important to ensure data quality, accuracy, and reliability. Additionally, always respect data usage policies, privacy regulations, and copyright laws when obtaining and utilizing data for visualization purposes, you can go for KnowledgeHut top Business Intelligence and Visualization courses and learn to turn data into opportunities with BI and Visualization and get job-ready.

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Conclusion

Access to quality and interesting datasets for data visualization is essential for creating impactful data visualizations. The article discussed various methods for obtaining data, including accessing public datasets, exploring government data portals, and more. Each method has its own advantages and considerations, depending on the specific requirements and constraints of the project.

By leveraging these datasets and data collection techniques, data visualization practitioners can create compelling visualizations that convey impactful stories, reveal valuable insights, and facilitate data-driven decision-making. It is important to ensure the quality, relevance, and integrity of the datasets used and to respect any terms of use or licensing restrictions associated with the data sources.