The Vesta Data Library
Vesta ships with around twenty public data sources built in — US health and chronic-disease surveillance, Census demographics, global population indicators, animal-disease reporting, and satellite climate and vegetation layers — from census-block detail to whole countries, every source cleaned, geocoded, and ready to map.
What's in the Library
Vesta’s data library is organized into categories you can access in software. The categories fall into two broad areas of work:
US Public Health
Chronic-disease, behavioral, and environmental health surveillance, down to the census tract.
US Demographics
Population, income, insurance, and housing, down to the block group.
World Demographics
Development indicators, population, and humanitarian data worldwide — from country level down to 1 km grids.
Agriculture & Livestock
Animal-disease surveillance, national herd and flock sizes, and gridded livestock density.
Geography & Climate
Elevation, climate, land-surface temperature, vegetation, land cover, and road density — all raster.
Public Health & Demographics
If you work in public health, this is the shelf you'll spend the most time on. Three categories — US Public Health, US Demographics, and World Demographics — cover chronic disease, environmental exposures, and the population context that turns raw counts into rates. Everything here is cleaned and ready to map.
US Public Health Mostly CDC
The sources epidemiologists reach for first
- PLACESCDCModel-based estimates for 40 chronic-disease and behavioral indicators — diabetes, asthma, smoking, mental distress, cancer screening, and more — for every U.S. county, census tract, and ZIP code.
- Chronic Disease Indicators (CDI)CDCA standardized state-level indicator set spanning diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, together with the behavioral risk factors behind them — built for benchmarking states against one another.
- Drug Poisoning MortalityCDCAnnual, age-adjusted, model-based drug-poisoning death rates by county, from the National Center for Health Statistics — a county-level view of the overdose burden over time.
- YRBSSCDCThe CDC's biennial Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System — tobacco, alcohol, drug use, sexual behavior, violence, diet, and physical activity among students, in major urban school districts.
- BRFSSCDCThe Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the nation's largest continuously conducted telephone health survey of adult behaviors, chronic conditions, and preventive care. Vesta imports state-level estimates only.
- Environmental Public Health Tracking NetworkCDC EPHT600+ measures linking environmental hazards and exposures — air quality, drinking water, extreme heat, asthma, childhood lead, and more — to health outcomes, from state level down to sub-county.
US Demographics US Census Bureau
The population context behind every rate you calculate
- American Community Survey (ACS)CensusThe Census Bureau's rolling survey of income, education, housing, employment, language, and commuting. Detailed Tables reach the block-group level; Subject Tables and Data Profiles are published down to place.
- Decennial 2020 CensusCensusOfficial population counts and race/ethnicity data from the 2020 Census, released for legislative redistricting under Public Law 94-171, down to the block group.
- Population EstimatesCensusAnnual Census population estimates by state, county, place, and metro area, for the years between decennial counts.
World Demographics World Bank · Census · HDX
Global and subnational context for work beyond the US
- World Bank Development IndicatorsWorld BankSixteen-thousand-plus indicators for 200+ countries — population, economy, education, environment, energy, and health — the standard reference set for cross-country comparison.
- U.S. Census International DatabaseCensusPopulation, fertility, and life-expectancy estimates, with subnational breakdowns where the IDB provides them and country-level coverage worldwide.
- HDX HAPIHDXBaseline population data from multiple humanitarian providers via the HDX Humanitarian API, for settings where census coverage is incomplete or out of date.
- Population DensityWorldPopModelled population density at 1 km resolution, for work where administrative boundaries are too coarse or change over time — one raster per country per year. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Veterinary & Environmental
Two categories built for animal health and environmental risk — disease surveillance, animal populations, and the environmental layers that drive where disease turns up.
Agriculture & Livestock WOAH · FAO
Disease surveillance and animal populations — the backbone of most animal-disease work.
- WAHISWOAHOfficial animal-disease outbreak notifications submitted to WOAH by member countries — the authoritative record of what was reported and when — plus six-month country summaries.
- FAOSTAT: Crops & LivestockFAOLivestock head counts by species, plus crop production, area harvested, and yields by country — back to 1961 for most countries.
- Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW4)GLW4Modelled animal density on a roughly 10-kilometer grid for six livestock species — cattle, poultry, pigs, and more — at three time points (2010, 2015, 2020). Your host layer when modelling where a disease could spread.
- Livestock Production Systems (GLPS)GLPSA classification of ruminant production systems — grazing, mixed rainfed, and mixed irrigated — that often matters more to disease risk than headcount alone, plus companion chicken and pig density layers.
Geography & Climate MODIS · WorldClim · GRIP4
The environmental side of the library, and it's all raster. Together with the livestock grid, Vesta's gridded layers span roughly 250 meters to 50 kilometers in resolution, so you can match the environmental detail to the scale of your question.
- ElevationOpenTopographyWorldwide elevation raster (GEBCO IceTopo) combining land topography with ocean bathymetry, so values under the ocean are negative. Needs a free API key and a country bounding-box clip.
- ClimateWorldClimInterpolated climate surfaces: 19 standard bioclimatic variables, a monthly climatology baseline, historical monthly weather, and elevation — the usual starting point for niche and suitability modelling.
- MODIS Land Surface TemperatureMODISSatellite-measured temperature of the ground surface itself — distinct from air temperature and useful where weather stations are sparse. 1-kilometer resolution, 8-day composite.
- MODIS Vegetation Index (NDVI/EVI)MODISThe standard satellite measures of vegetation greenness — a strong proxy for forage, seasonality, and drought — at up to 250-meter resolution, 16-day composite.
- MODIS Land CoverMODISAnnual land-cover classification using the 17-class IGBP scheme, so you can track how land use around a study area has changed. 500-meter resolution, updated annually.
- Road DensityGRIP4Road density from the Global Roads Inventory Project — metres of road per square kilometer — as a total-roads layer plus five layers by road class. A static 2018 snapshot, widely used as a proxy for accessibility and connectivity.
Ready to put the Data Library to work?
Every source is cleaned, geocoded, and analysis-ready so you can spend your time on the analysis, not the prep.
If you have any questions about Vesta's or other data sources, contact us at support@biomedware.com
Try Vesta risk-free for 14 days. Schedule your kick-off call to trial Vesta today.