---
id: "worksheets:exercise/open-data-availability"
type: "Solving Public Problems worksheet"
title: "Open Data Availability"
url: "https://worksheets.solvingpublicproblems.org/exercise/open-data-availability"
date: "2024-07-11"
summary: "Exercises designed to help you create and develop your public interest project, from Solving Public Problems by The GovLab and the Burnes Center for Social Change."
source: "Solving Public Problems worksheets (worksheets.solvingpublicproblems.org), The GovLab and the Burnes Center for Social Change"
licence: "none stated"
---

# Open Data Availability

Exercise group: Defining Problems with Data · Optional exercise

## Tips

While you can start with your state’s open-data catalog, often these catalogs are not comprehensive sources of available data, and relevant agencies need to be engaged to identify available data sets.

Additional Resources:

There are numerous aggregators of open data, including the following:

- Data.gov
- US Census Bureau
- European Union Open Data Portal
- Google’s Public Data Explorer
- Urban Institute
- World Bank
- World Health Organization
- Dataverse
- UN Data
- Enigma Public Data
- Depending on your field of interest, different federal agencies such as the EPA, the US Department of Labor, and the FBI offer access to free and machine-readable data
- The Lens (world’s largest open database of patents)
- OpenCorporates (world’s largest open database of companies)

## Questions

1. Where can you find the data to define your problem?
2. Does an agency of government collect data that would be useful for solving your specific problem?

## Source

Solving Public Problems, Chapter 6, p. 170

## PDF version

https://directus.theburnescenter.org/assets/b69ca2d5-9eeb-44cc-ab8e-42a9ae1a749e

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Original page: https://worksheets.solvingpublicproblems.org/exercise/open-data-availability · Licence: none stated