Online Data Sources

The Add Data hub's online path (see Importing Data) can pull directly from a catalog of online sources, organized into six categories. Selecting a dataset opens its own guided import steps, tailored to what that source needs (an area of interest, a set of measures, a time range, and so on).

This page catalogs what's available in each category. For how the import wizard itself works, see Importing Data.

US Public Health

  • CDC PLACES — Small-area chronic disease & health indicators. Model-based estimates for 40 health indicators — diabetes, asthma, smoking, mental distress, cancer screening, and more — for every U.S. county, census tract, and ZIP code, capturing local variation that state-level surveys are too coarse to show. County · Census Tract · ZCTA · 2020–2025 · 40 indicators.
  • Chronic Disease Indicators (CDI) — State-level chronic disease & risk factors. A standardized indicator set covering conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, together with the behavioral risk factors behind them, built for comparing states against one another. State · 2015–2022 · 100+ indicators across 17 topics.
  • Drug Poisoning Mortality — County-level drug poisoning death rates. Annual age-adjusted, model-based death rates from drug poisoning by county, from the National Center for Health Statistics — a county-level view of the overdose burden over time. Range-valued rates are parsed automatically. County · 1999–2015 · annual.
  • YRBSS — Youth Risk Behavior Survey — Health-risk behaviors among middle- and high-school students. CDC's biennial survey tracking tobacco, alcohol, drug use, sexual behavior, violence, diet, and physical activity. Coverage is limited to major urban school districts, and not every measure is available across the full year range. School District · 1991–2017 · biennial.
  • BRFSS — Behavioral Risk Factor Survey — Adult health behaviors and chronic conditions. The nation's largest continuously conducted telephone health survey, tracking health behaviors, chronic conditions, and access to preventive care every year. Vesta imports state-level estimates only. State · 2011–present · annual · 50+ indicators.
  • CDC EPH Tracking Network — Environment, exposures, and related health outcomes. Aggregates 600+ measures linking environmental hazards and exposures — air quality, drinking water, extreme heat, asthma, childhood lead, and more — to health outcomes. Importing at the sub-county level requires narrowing to a state first. State · County · Sub-county · 2001–present · 600+ measures.

US Demographics

  • American Community Survey (ACS), 5-Year — Detailed, Subject, and Data Profile tables. The Census Bureau's rolling survey of income, education, housing, employment, language, and commuting; pooling five years of responses is what makes reliable estimates possible for small geographies. Detailed Tables reach down to the block group; Subject Tables and Data Profiles are published only down to place. State → Block Group (Detailed) or State → Place (Subject / Profile) · 2009/2010 – 2024.
  • Decennial 2020 Census, Redistricting File — Official population counts and race/ethnicity data from the 2020 Census, released for legislative redistricting under Public Law 94-171. State → Block Group · 2020.
  • Population Estimates — Annual Census population estimates by state, county, place, and metro area, for the years between decennial counts. Population density is published only through 2019; from 2020 the series switches to an endpoint that reports median age instead, and drops place-level geography. State · County · Place · 2015–2023.

World Demographics

  • World Bank Development Indicators — Global country-level development indicators. Sixteen-thousand-plus indicators for 200+ countries covering population, economy, education, environment, energy, and health — the standard reference set for cross-country comparison. Country (ADM0) · 1960–present.
  • U.S. Census International Database — Subnational population & vital statistics. Population, fertility, and life-expectancy estimates — seven variables in total, three selected by default — with subnational breakdowns for the countries where the IDB provides them, and country-level coverage worldwide. Country · ADM1 · ADM2 · 2020–2025.
  • HDX HAPI — Humanitarian Population — Baseline population data sourced from multiple humanitarian providers via the HDX Humanitarian API, for settings where census coverage is incomplete or out of date. Coverage varies by country. ADM0 · ADM1 · ADM2 · ~100 countries.
  • WorldPop — Population Density — Modelled population density at 1 km resolution, useful wherever administrative boundaries are too coarse or change over time. One raster per country per year. Licensed CC BY 4.0 — attribution required. Raster (1 km) · 2000–2020.

Agriculture & Livestock

  • WAHIS — Animal Disease Surveillance — Official animal disease outbreak notifications submitted to WOAH by member countries — the authoritative record of what was reported and when — plus six-month country summaries. Country · ADM1 · ADM2 · Points · global.
  • FAOSTAT Crops & Livestock — Country-level agricultural statistics. Livestock head counts by species, crop production, area harvested, and yields by country, back to 1961 for most countries. Country (ADM0) · 1961–present.
  • Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW4) — Global raster livestock density at ~10 km. Modelled density maps for six livestock species — useful as a covariate in disease-spread modelling or as a denominator for surveillance metrics. Raster (~10 km) · 2010 · 2015 · 2020.
  • Livestock Production Systems (GLPS) — How livestock are kept, worldwide. A classification of ruminant production systems — grazing, mixed rainfed, and mixed irrigated — which often matters more to disease risk than headcount alone, plus companion chicken and pig density layers. Public domain (CC0). Raster (~10 km) · 2010 · static.

Geography & Climate

  • OpenTopography (Elevation) — Worldwide elevation raster (GEBCO IceTopo), combining land topography with ocean bathymetry — values under the ocean are negative. Requires a country bounding-box clip and a free API key. Raster (~450 m) · worldwide.
  • WorldClim 2.1 (Climate) — Interpolated climate surfaces: 19 standard bioclimatic variables, a monthly climatology baseline, historical monthly weather, and elevation — the usual starting point for niche and suitability modelling. Raster (~5–50 km) · 1950–2024.
  • MODIS Land Surface Temperature — Satellite-measured temperature of the ground surface itself, distinct from air temperature and useful where weather stations are sparse. 8-day composite, day and/or night. Raster (1 km) · 8-day composite.
  • MODIS Vegetation Index (NDVI/EVI) — The standard satellite measures of vegetation greenness, widely used as a proxy for forage availability, seasonality, and drought. Raster (250 m) · 16-day composite.
  • MODIS Land Cover — Annual land-cover classification using the 17-class IGBP scheme, so you can track how land use around a study area has changed. Categorical. Raster (500 m) · annual · 2001–present.
  • GRIP4 — Road Density — Road density from the Global Roads Inventory Project, expressed as metres of road per square kilometer of land area — a total-roads layer plus five layers by road class. A static 2018 snapshot, commonly used as a stand-in for accessibility and connectivity. Raster (~10 km) · 2018 · static.

Just for Fun

  • SSA Baby Names — Most popular baby names by state, from the U.S. Social Security Administration. National rankings drive which names are included; per-state counts and proportions are pulled across the year range you choose. State · 1910–2024.

This page catalogs the 24 datasets available across these six categories as of this writing. American Community Survey table types (Detailed, Subject, Data Profile) are selectable individually within the software. A more detailed description of each data source is available in software.