Quantitative Methods in Urban Design and Planning
URBAN 520, Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington, Autumn 2026
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 - 4:20 pm, Gould Hall 110, the 2nd lab room: Gould Hall 007
Instructor: Haoyu Yue, [email protected]. Office Hours: Monday 9:20-10:20 AM at Gould Hall 012C; or book online
Teaching Assistant: Sun Ho Hwang, [email protected]. Office Hours: Friday 10:00-11:00 AM at Gould Hall 432
Resources
Reference Text
- Basic Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Planners - by Reid Ewing and Keunhyun Park (2020).
- Advanced Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Planners - by Reid Ewing and Keunhyun Park (2020).
- Statistics (4th Edition) - by David A. Freedman, Robert L. Pisani, and Roger Purves (2007).
- OpenIntro Statistics - by David Diez, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, Christopher Barr, and OpenIntro (2024).
- Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics - by Nathan Yau (2024)
- Visualization Analysis & Design - by Tamara Munzner (2014)
- Modern Data Science with R - by Benjamin S. Baumer, Daniel T. Kaplan, and Nicholas J. Horton (2024)
- Posit Cheatsheets for R
- IBM SPSS Statistics Documentation
Tools and Softwares
- Tidyverse (R) - a collection of R packages designed for data science
- ggplot2 (R) - a graphics language for R
- Shiny (R) - R package to create interactive web applications
- IBM SPSS Statistics - a comprehensive statistical analysis platform
- Pandas (Python) - a package data for manipulation and analysis in Python
- Matplotlib (Python) - free library for visualizations in Python
- Vega-Altair (Python) - Jupyter-friendly Python API for Vega-Lite
- Seaborn (Python) - a package for statistical data visualization, built on top of matplotlib
- Tableau for Students – a free Tableau license for students
- Tableau Public – a free platform to explore, create, share data visualizations, and connect with data analysts worldwide.
- Adobe Color - free color palette generator
- Viz Palette - picking colors for data visualizations
- Visual Studio Code - a popular integrated development environment (IDE) and code editor
- Anaconda - platform for data science, simplifying the development and deployment of projects
- Windows Terminal - command-line shells for Windows
- GitHub - a developer platform to create, store, manage, and share code
Datasets
Data availability is a starting point of conducting quantitative research. Search or pick tags to narrow the list. The list was mainly collected by AI. Let me know if you find any issues or new datasets worth including.
Federal agencies
- Bureau of Economic Analysis - GDP by County
Annual current-dollar and real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product by industry for every county and state.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis - Personal Income by County
Annual total and per capita personal income with components (wages, transfer receipts, investment income) for every county and state.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis - Regional Interactive Data
Interactive tables, maps, bulk downloads, and API access for state and county GDP, personal income, and regional price parities.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis - Regional Price Parities (RPP)
Annual indexes of price levels for goods, services, and housing rents across states and metropolitan areas, used to compare living costs between places.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE)
Household spending, income, and characteristics from interview and diary surveys (collected by the Census Bureau); tables by region and selected metros, plus microdata.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Monthly price indexes for consumer goods and services including shelter; national and regional series, plus about two dozen large metros (Seattle bimonthly).
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF)
Annual counts and rates of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses and fatal occupational injuries by industry, occupation, and state.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
Monthly labor force, employment, unemployment, and unemployment rate estimates for states, metro areas, counties, and cities of 25,000 or more.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
Annual employment and wage estimates for about 830 occupations for the nation, states, and roughly 530 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
Quarterly establishments, employment, and wages from unemployment insurance records covering over 95 percent of jobs, by detailed industry for counties, metros, and states.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - State and Metro Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings (CES)
Monthly nonfarm payroll employment by industry for states and metropolitan areas from the Current Employment Statistics establishment survey.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)
Shipper survey of freight by commodity, value, weight, mode, origin, and destination for states and CFS metro areas; every five years, latest 2022, with PUMS.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Freight Analysis Framework (FAF)
Estimated freight tonnage and value by origin-destination region, commodity, and mode for states and major metros; current version FAF6 uses base year 2022.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Local Area Transportation Characteristics for Households (LATCH)
Modeled census-tract estimates of average weekday household person trips, vehicle trips, person miles, and vehicle miles traveled; latest vintage based on the 2017 NHTS.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics - National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD)
About 90 nationwide GIS layers of transportation networks and facilities (roads, rail, transit, airports, ports), updated continuously through the BTS Geospatial Data Catalog.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics - National Transportation Noise Map
Modeled average aviation, highway, and rail noise exposure as national raster layers, intended for trend and screening analysis rather than site-specific levels; periodic updates.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
Annual state telephone survey microdata on health behaviors, chronic conditions, and preventive care, with SMART BRFSS estimates for selected metro areas and counties.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - CDC WONDER
Online query system for mortality, natality, and other vital and public health statistics, down to county level with small-count suppression; updated regularly.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Heat and Health Tracker
County and ZIP code profiles of historical, forecast, and projected heat, heat-related illness emergency department visits, and population vulnerability, with customizable maps.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - PLACES: Local Data for Better Health
Model-based estimates of 40 chronic disease, risk behavior, disability, and health-related social need measures for counties, places, census tracts, and ZCTAs; released annually.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Social Vulnerability Index (CDC/ATSDR SVI)
Census tract, county, and ZCTA percentile rankings of social vulnerability from 16 ACS variables in four themes; released biennially (2000-2022).
- Council on Environmental Quality - Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST, archived copy)
Archived census tract disadvantaged-community designations and burden indicators for climate, energy, housing, health, and pollution (version 2.0, December 2024); no longer federally maintained.
- Federal Communications Commission - National Broadband Map
Location-level fixed and mobile broadband availability by provider, technology, and speed from Broadband Data Collection filings; updated twice yearly with bulk downloads.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency - National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL)
Geospatial database of currently effective FIRM flood zones and map revisions covering over 90 percent of the U.S. population; continuously updated, downloadable by county or state.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency - National Risk Index (NRI)
Expected annual loss, social vulnerability, community resilience, and composite risk scores for 18 natural hazards by county and census tract; tables, shapefiles, geodatabases.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency - OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries
All federal major disaster, emergency, and fire management declarations since 1953 with incident type and designated counties; updated daily; CSV, JSON, or API.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency - OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims
Over two million National Flood Insurance Program claim transactions since 1978 with loss amounts and census tract location; updated roughly monthly; bulk download or API.
- Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council - Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data (HMDA)
Annual loan-level mortgage application records with action taken, loan terms, applicant demographics, and property census tract; filterable national and local downloads.
- Federal Highway Administration - Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS)
State-reported road inventory with extent, condition, traffic volume (AADT), and functional class by road section; annual, with geospatial files through BTS.
- Federal Highway Administration - Highway Statistics Series
Annual state-level tables on vehicle miles traveled, road mileage, licensed drivers, vehicle registrations, fuel use, and highway finance, with selected urbanized area tables.
- Federal Highway Administration - National Bridge Inventory (NBI)
Inventory and inspection records for every public highway bridge, with location, structure type, traffic, and deck, superstructure, and substructure condition ratings; published annually by June 15.
- Federal Highway Administration - National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)
Nationally representative household, person, vehicle, and trip microdata on daily travel mode, purpose, and timing; conducted every 5-8 years (latest 2022 NextGen NHTS).
- Federal Highway Administration - Traffic Volume Trends (TVT)
Monthly estimates of vehicle miles traveled and year-over-year change by state and road type, based on about 5,000 continuous traffic count stations.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency - Datasets
FHFA data on house prices, mortgage loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and mortgage performance.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency - House Price Index (HPI)
Repeat-sales house price indexes for the nation, states, metro areas, counties, ZIP codes, and census tracts; quarterly and annual series.
- Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia - Historical Housing Prices Project
House sale prices (1890-2024) and rents (1890-2006) for 30 major U.S. cities, compiled from historical newspaper real estate listings.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - FRED Housing Data
Tens of thousands of housing time series (prices, starts, permits, vacancies, mortgage rates) from many sources, downloadable and available by API.
- Federal Transit Administration - National Transit Database (NTD)
Agency- and mode-level transit service, ridership, operating expense, funding, asset, and safety data; annual database since 1990s plus monthly ridership time series.
- National Center for Education Statistics - Common Core of Data (CCD)
Annual directory, enrollment, staffing, and finance data for every U.S. public school and school district, including addresses, grades offered, and charter status.
- National Center for Education Statistics - Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE)
Geocoded public and private school locations, school district boundaries, locale codes, ACS-based district profiles, and school neighborhood poverty estimates; updated annually.
- National Center for Education Statistics - Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Annual institution-level data on every college and technical school in federal aid programs: location, enrollment, completions, costs, and staffing.
- National Center for Health Statistics - National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
Annual household interview survey on health status, insurance, and access to care; nationally representative, and public-use files identify only Census region.
- National Center for Health Statistics - National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
Interviews combined with physical examinations and lab tests for about 5,000 people a year; nationally representative health and nutrition microdata.
- National Center for Health Statistics - National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)
Official records of all U.S. births and deaths with cause of death; annual, with county-level natality and mortality queries through CDC WONDER.
- National Center for Health Statistics - U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP)
Life expectancy at birth and abridged life tables for most U.S. census tracts (2010 tract boundaries) for 2010-2015; one-time release.
- National Center for Health Statistics - Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties
Six-level urban-rural classification of all U.S. counties based on OMB metro delineations and population; latest vintage 2023, with 2013, 2006, and 1990 versions.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
Census of fatal motor vehicle crashes since 1975 with crash location coordinates, vehicle, and person records; released annually with an online query system.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Climate Data Online (CDO)
Station-level daily, monthly, and annual temperature, precipitation, and other weather observations plus 30-year climate normals, searchable by station, county, or ZIP; web services available.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA)
County, census tract, and tribal-area summaries of historical and projected extreme heat, drought, wildfire, flooding, and coastal inundation indicators, with GIS downloads and services.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Climate at a Glance
Monthly-updated time series, maps, and rankings of temperature, precipitation, degree days, and drought indices for the nation, states, climate divisions, counties, and cities.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Precipitation Frequency Data Server (NOAA Atlas 14)
Point and gridded precipitation depth-duration-frequency estimates with confidence intervals, used for stormwater and drainage design.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Sea Level Rise Viewer
Coastal inundation maps for 0-10 feet of sea level rise, mapping confidence, marsh migration, and high-tide flooding frequency, with downloadable GIS data.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Storm Events Database
County- and forecast-zone-level records of storms and significant weather events since 1950 with deaths, injuries, and damage estimates; updated monthly with bulk CSV files.
- National Park Service - Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Annual Reports
Annual reports (FY2004-FY2025) on certified rehabilitation projects and qualified expenditures, with state-by-state tables, plus Rutgers economic impact studies; published yearly.
- National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Data Downloads
Spreadsheets of listed, removed, and eligible properties and National Historic Landmarks with address, county, and dates, plus a public NRHP geodatabase; refreshed periodically (latest May 2026).
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - National Inventory of Dams (NID)
Inventory of more than 90,000 U.S. dams with location, owner, purpose, size, hazard potential classification, and condition assessment; interactive map, bulk downloads, and API.
- U.S. Census Bureau - American Community Survey (ACS)
Annual survey of social, economic, housing, and commuting characteristics; 1-year estimates for areas 65,000+, 5-year estimates to block group, plus PUMS microdata.
- U.S. Census Bureau - American Housing Survey (AHS)
Biennial survey of housing condition, costs, quality, and neighborhood characteristics; national and selected metropolitan estimates plus public-use microdata.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Building Permits Survey (BPS)
Monthly and annual counts of new privately owned housing units authorized by permits, by structure size, for permit-issuing places, counties, metros, and states.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Census Data API
Programmatic access to ACS, decennial, PEP, CBP, and other Census tables at all published geographies; data.census.gov is the point-and-click interface.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Census Transportation Planning Products (CTPP)
Special ACS tabulations of residence, workplace, and home-to-work flow data for transportation planning at small geographies; latest release is 2017-2021.
- U.S. Census Bureau - County Business Patterns (CBP)
Annual counts of establishments, employment, and payroll by NAICS industry and establishment size for counties, metro areas, and ZIP codes.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Decennial Census
Full count of population and housing every ten years (latest 2020): age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household type, and tenure down to census block.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Economic Census
Establishments, sales, payroll, and employment by detailed industry every five years (years ending in 2 and 7) for the nation, states, metros, counties, and places.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Housing Datasets
Index of Census Bureau housing datasets in one place: ACS, American Housing Survey, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership, and new construction.
- U.S. Census Bureau - LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES)
Census-block counts of jobs by workplace and residence plus home-to-work flows, by earnings, age, and industry; annual (2002-2023 in LODES8); mapped in OnTheMap.
- U.S. Census Bureau - OnTheMap
Web mapping tool for LEHD data: where workers live and work, commuting flows, and worker characteristics for any area down to census blocks.
- U.S. Census Bureau - Population Estimates Program (PEP)
Annual estimates of population, components of change (births, deaths, migration), and housing units for the nation, states, counties, and incorporated places.
- U.S. Census Bureau - TIGER/Line Shapefiles
Annual shapefiles and geodatabases of census boundaries from block to state, plus roads, rail, and water features, designed to join with census tables.
- U.S. Census Bureau - data.census.gov
The Census Bureau's point-and-click data site for tables, maps, and profiles from the ACS, decennial census, and economic programs; replaced American FactFinder.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service - Food Access Research Atlas (FARA)
Census tract indicators of low income and low access to food retailers using straight-line and road-network distances, with mapping tools and downloadable data.
- U.S. Department of Energy - Alternative Fuels Data Center Station Locator
Point locations and attributes of public and private electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling stations nationwide; updated continuously with downloads and API.
- U.S. Department of Energy - Low-Income Energy Affordability Data Tool (LEAD)
Estimated household energy burden, expenditures, and fuel type by income, tenure, and housing type for states, counties, cities, and census tracts (2018-2022 ACS basis).
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Aggregated USPS Administrative Data on Address Vacancies
Quarterly census tract counts of total, vacant, and no-stat residential and business addresses; free registration limited to government and nonprofit users.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS)
Custom ACS tabulations of housing cost burden and housing problems by HUD income category and tenure, down to census tract; updated annually (latest 2018-2022).
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Fair Market Rents (FMR)
Annual gross rent estimates by bedroom count for metro areas and nonmetro counties, plus Small Area FMRs by ZIP code; used to set voucher payment standards.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD User Datasets
Portal to HUD's research datasets: fair market rents, income limits, CHAS, LIHTC, assisted housing, USPS vacancy, and crosswalk files.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD-USPS ZIP Code Crosswalk Files
Quarterly allocation ratios linking USPS ZIP codes to census tracts, counties, CBSAs, and congressional districts based on address counts; available by download or API.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Database (LIHTC)
Project-level records of LIHTC properties since 1987 with address, geocodes, unit counts, and placed-in-service year; updated annually.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Picture of Subsidized Households
Annual counts and characteristics of HUD-assisted units and households by program, summarized from national to census tract and project level (2009-present).
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Point-in-Time and Housing Inventory Count Data (PIT/HIC)
Annual January counts of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness and shelter bed inventory, by Continuum of Care and state, since 2007.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - eGIS Open Data
HUD's ArcGIS hub of geospatial layers on public housing, assisted multifamily properties, opportunity zones, and program boundaries.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration - Open Data API
Programmatic access to EIA electricity, natural gas, petroleum, coal, and state energy time series, many at state or plant level, with a free API key.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration - Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
Periodic national household survey of energy use, expenditures, and housing characteristics with public-use microdata and state estimates (2020 microdata; 2024 tables releasing).
- U.S. Energy Information Administration - State Energy Data System (SEDS)
Annual state-level estimates of energy production, consumption by sector and source, prices, and expenditures, with time series back to 1960.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration - U.S. Energy Atlas
Interactive maps and downloadable GIS layers of power plants, electric transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines, refineries, and other energy facilities, mostly built from EIA surveys.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - AirData and Air Quality System (AQS)
Monitor-level hourly, daily, and annual outdoor air pollutant concentrations and AQI values from regulatory monitors nationwide; pre-generated files plus the AQS API.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - EJScreen Environmental Justice Screening Tool (archived copy)
Archived block group environmental burden and demographic indicators with combined EJ index percentiles from EJScreen version 2.3 (2024); no longer updated by EPA.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - ENERGY STAR Certified Buildings and Plants
Searchable list of buildings and plants certified for energy performance, with address, property type, and certification year.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - EnviroAtlas
Hundreds of mapped indicators of ecosystem services, green space, land cover, and health, nationally by watershed and by block group for selected communities.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Envirofacts
One search across EPA databases on air, water, waste, toxics, radiation, and regulated facilities, with a data API.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Facility Level Information on Greenhouse Gases Tool (GHGRP FLIGHT)
Annual facility-level greenhouse gas emissions from about 8,000 large emitters and suppliers, filterable by sector, gas, and location; EPA-published data cover 2010-2023.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Public Water System Service Area Boundaries
Mapped service areas for about 44,000 community water systems plus non-community systems, keyed by PWSID to SDWIS population served, connections, and violation records.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Smart Location Database (SLD) and National Walkability Index
Block group indicators of density, land use diversity, street design, transit service, and destination accessibility, plus a derived walkability score (SLD version 3, 2021).
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Facility-level annual reports of toxic chemical releases and waste management, with coordinates and industry codes, for 1987 through the latest reporting year.
- U.S. General Services Administration - Data.gov
Federal open data catalog indexing hundreds of thousands of datasets from federal, state, and local agencies.
- U.S. Geological Survey - 3D Elevation Program (3DEP)
Nationwide lidar point clouds and bare-earth elevation models at 1-meter and 1/3 arc-second resolution; free, distributed through The National Map and cloud services.
- U.S. Geological Survey - Annual National Land Cover Database (Annual NLCD)
30-meter annual land cover, land cover change, and fractional impervious surface rasters for the conterminous U.S. from 1985 onward.
- U.S. Geological Survey - The National Map (TNM)
Base geospatial layers including hydrography, transportation, structures, boundaries, elevation, and imagery, downloadable nationwide through the TNM Downloader and web services.
State agencies
- Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation - Register and Historic Property Inventory GIS Layers
ArcGIS feature services of register-listed properties and districts and about 630,000 historic property inventory points statewide, updated quarterly; archaeological site locations excluded.
- Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation - WISAARD
Statewide map-based records of inventoried historic properties and National, Washington Heritage, and Heritage Barn Register listings; archaeological sites and reports require approved SAW and WISAARD accounts.
- Washington State Department of Commerce - Projected Housing Needs and Housing for All Planning Tool (HAPT)
HB 1220 countywide 20-year housing need projections by income band, including emergency and permanent supportive housing, with jurisdiction allocation methods in the HAPT workbook.
- Washington State Department of Ecology - Washington State Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
Official statewide greenhouse gas emissions by sector since 1990, tracked against statutory limits; current edition covers 1990-2022, published annually starting 2026.
- Washington State Department of Health - Drinking Water System Data (Sentry)
Sentry database and Excel downloads for Washington Group A and B public water systems: owner, population served, connections, sources, water quality results, and compliance actions.
- Washington State Department of Health - Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map
Interactive census tract map (Version 3.0) ranking cumulative environmental health disparities by combining environmental threat measures with socioeconomic and sensitive-population vulnerability measures.
- Washington State Department of Health - Washington Tracking Network (WTN)
Environmental public health data portal with dashboards, a query tool, and downloadable indicators by state, county, and census tract.
- Washington State Department of Transportation - Crash Data Portal
Police-reported crash data covering ten years plus the current year, with summary reports, maps, and Excel downloads filterable by region, county, and city.
- Washington State Department of Transportation - Traffic Count Data
State highway traffic counts: AADT and truck percentages, plus short-duration and permanent recorder data (daily to 15-minute) via the MS2 reporting system.
- Washington State Department of Transportation - Traffic Counts (AADT) Current
GIS point layer of 2025 Annual Average Daily Traffic at about 6,600 state highway count locations, all directions combined; updated annually.
- Washington State Department of Transportation - WSDOT Geospatial Open Data Portal
WSDOT's GIS data hub with downloadable state highway network, traffic volume, and other transportation layers.
- Washington State Employment Security Department - Covered Employment (QCEW)
Quarterly and annual employment and wages for jobs covered by unemployment insurance, by NAICS industry, statewide and by county.
- Washington State Employment Security Department - Labor Force and Unemployment (LAUS)
Monthly labor force, employment, unemployment, and unemployment rate estimates for the state, counties, and local areas; seasonally adjusted and unadjusted.
- Washington State Employment Security Department - Washington Employment Estimates (WA-QB and CES)
Monthly nonfarm employment by industry for the state and local areas, benchmarked to QCEW (WA-QB) and survey-based (CES); seasonally adjusted and unadjusted.
- Washington State Office of Financial Management - April 1 Official Population Estimates
Official annual April 1 population and housing unit estimates, with components of change, for the state, counties, cities, and towns; latest vintage 2026.
- Washington State Office of Financial Management - Growth Management Act County Population Projections
County population projection ranges used to set GMA comprehensive plan targets; current series 2020-2050 (2022 release), updated on a five-year cycle.
- Washington State Office of Financial Management - Small Area Estimates Program (SAEP)
Annual population and housing unit estimates for census blocks, block groups, tracts, ZCTAs, school and legislative districts, and urban growth areas.
- Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) - Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal
Statewide ArcGIS Hub from the WaTech Geospatial Program Office aggregating state agency GIS data on boundaries, parcels, transportation, environment, and planning.
- Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) - Washington State Current Parcels
Statewide tax parcel polygons compiled from county assessors, with normalized parcel ID, situs address, DOR land use code, and land and improvement values; updated April 2026.
Regional agencies
- Puget Sound Regional Council - Covered Employment Estimates
Annual March covered employment estimates derived from ESD QCEW, by city (2-digit NAICS and major sector) and by census tract (major sector).
- Puget Sound Regional Council - Displacement Risk Mapping
Census tract displacement risk index built from socio-demographic, transportation, neighborhood, housing, and civic engagement indicators; interactive map plus downloadable data.
- Puget Sound Regional Council - Household Travel Survey
Household, person, day, trip, and vehicle microdata from the regional travel surveys (2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 waves), with codebooks and reports.
- Puget Sound Regional Council - Land Use Vision-Implemented Targets (LUV-it) Projections
Population, household, and job forecasts to 2050 consistent with VISION 2050 and countywide growth targets, summarized by county, city, tract, FAZ, and TAZ.
- Puget Sound Regional Council - PSRC Data Portal
ArcGIS Hub for the four-county region (King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish): census, employment, forecasts, travel survey, transportation networks, and planning geographies.
- Sound Transit - Open Transit Data (GTFS)
GTFS schedule feeds for Sound Transit and other Puget Sound agencies (Metro, Community Transit, Pierce Transit, WSF), plus real-time data via the OneBusAway API.
- Sound Transit - System Performance Tracker: Ridership
Interactive tracker of ridership trends for Link light rail, Sounder, and ST Express, alongside reliability and other performance metrics.
Local governments
- City of Seattle - Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (Office of Sustainability and Environment)
Biennial citywide core emissions from transportation, buildings, and waste since the 2008 baseline, with reports and data visualizations; latest inventory covers 2024.
- City of Seattle - Customer Service Requests
Public service requests submitted through the Customer Service portal and Find It, Fix It app since 2013, with type, department, status, and location; updated daily.
- City of Seattle - Fremont Bridge Bicycle Counter
Hourly counts of bicycles crossing the Fremont Bridge sidewalks since October 2012, by east and west sidewalk; updated monthly.
- City of Seattle - Historic and Special Review Districts
Polygon boundaries of Seattle's eight landmark, historical, and special review districts (e.g., Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market) as Land Use Code overlays with code chapter links.
- City of Seattle - Landmarks
Point locations of 500+ designated Seattle landmarks (buildings, sites, vessels, street clocks) with parcel number, ordinance, designation date, and nomination document links; last updated September 2026.
- City of Seattle - OPCD Displacement Risk Index 2022
Office of Planning and Community Development raster index of relative displacement risk across Seattle, from demographic, place-based, and market data; compiled 2022.
- City of Seattle - Racial and Social Equity Composite Index
Census tract index combining race/ELL/origins, socioeconomic disadvantage, and health disadvantage sub-indices to identify equity priority areas; current 2026 version.
- City of Seattle - SDCI Building Permits
All building permits issued or in progress, with permit type, housing units added and removed, project cost, review times, zoning, and coordinates; updated daily.
- City of Seattle - SDOT Sidewalks
SDOT sidewalk inventory of about 46,000 segments with width, material, surface type, curb type, and condition rating, used for walkway planning and repair; refreshed daily.
- City of Seattle - SPD Crime Data: 2008-Present
NIBRS-classified offenses reported to Seattle Police since 2008, with dates, block address, beat, precinct, neighborhood, 2020 census block, and coordinates; updated daily.
- City of Seattle - Seattle GeoData
City of Seattle GIS open data hub with zoning, streets, neighborhoods, community reporting areas, council districts, and infrastructure layers.
- City of Seattle - Seattle Historical Sites Database
Searchable inventory of 5,000+ surveyed Seattle properties by address, parcel, year built, style, neighborhood, and architect, from Historic Resources Survey work since 2000.
- City of Seattle - Seattle Open Data Portal
City of Seattle Socrata portal with datasets on permits, public safety, transportation, and city services; CSV download and SODA API access.
- King County - GIS Open Data
King County GIS Center hub with downloadable parcels, zoning, jurisdictional boundaries, environmental, and transportation layers; shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, and API access.
- King County - Historic Preservation Viewer (Landmarks and Historic Resource Inventory)
Web map of designated King County and partner-city landmarks, about 2,900 historic resource inventory sites, and landmark road corridors; excludes Seattle.
- King County Department of Assessments - Assessments Data Download
Bulk CSV extracts of assessor records for all King County parcels: parcel attributes, residential and commercial buildings, condos, apartments, sales, and value history.
- King County Metro - GTFS and GTFS-realtime Feeds
Static GTFS schedule feed for Metro and partner services, plus GTFS-realtime trip updates, vehicle positions, and service alerts.
- King County Metro - Rider Dashboard and Data Reports
Metro data hub with The Dash (route-level ridership dashboard), the Strategic Plan dashboard, and annual System Evaluation reports on route performance.
- King County Regional Homelessness Authority - Point-in-Time Count
Countywide count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness, with Housing Inventory Count; 2026 executive report released June 2026.
- King County Regional Homelessness Authority - System Performance Dashboard
HMIS-based homelessness response system performance measures for King County, with annual trends and subpopulation breakdowns.
- Public Health Seattle & King County - Communities Count
Dashboards of social, economic, and health indicators for King County, its regions, and 61 Health Reporting Areas, with demographic breakdowns.
Universities
- Andy Krause - King County Residential Sales and Properties (kingCoData)
R package of cleaned King County residential sales joined to assessor property characteristics, ready for price modeling.
- Climate Impacts Group, University of Washington - Climate Mapping for a Resilient Washington
Statewide maps and county summaries of projected extreme heat, heavy precipitation, drought, flooding, snowpack, sea level rise, and wildfire indicators; downloadable tables and rasters.
- Eviction Lab, Princeton University - Eviction Tracking System
Monthly eviction filing counts and trends since 2020 for 43 cities and 11 states, including Tacoma, WA, compared against a 2023-2024 baseline; updated monthly.
- Eviction Lab, Princeton University - National Eviction Map and Data
Eviction filing and judgment rates compiled from court records for 2000-2018, available for states, counties, cities, census tracts, and block groups.
- Eviction Lab, Princeton University - National Zoning and Land Use Database
Zoning Restrictiveness Index and code-derived measures (minimum lot size, density, parking minimums, height limits) for 2,600+ municipalities, extracted with natural language processing; last updated October 2023.
- ICPSR, University of Michigan - Data Archive
Archive of thousands of social science studies and survey microdata with codebooks; searchable by anyone, downloadable by member institutions such as UW.
- ICPSR, University of Michigan - National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)
Archive of crime and criminal justice data, including Uniform Crime Reports and NIBRS files, victimization surveys, and court and corrections studies.
- ICPSR, University of Michigan - National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA)
Tract, block group, ZCTA, and county measures of the physical, economic, demographic, and social environment (land cover, transit, parks, healthcare, housing), back to 1981.
- IPUMS, University of Minnesota - IPUMS CPS
Harmonized microdata from the monthly Current Population Survey and its supplements, 1962-present, on employment, income, and program participation; geography limited to states and larger metros/counties.
- IPUMS, University of Minnesota - IPUMS NHGIS
Census and ACS summary tables, harmonized time series, and GIS boundary files from 1790 to present, down to census blocks; updated as new Census products are released.
- IPUMS, University of Minnesota - IPUMS USA
Harmonized person- and household-level microdata from decennial censuses (1790-2010) and annual ACS samples (2000-present); finest public geography for recent samples is the PUMA.
- Opportunity Insights, Harvard University - Opportunity Atlas
Adult outcomes such as income, employment, and incarceration for children by the census tract where they grew up, split by parental income, race, and gender (mainly 1978-1983 births).
- Opportunity Insights, Harvard University - Social Capital Atlas
Economic connectedness, network cohesiveness, and civic engagement measures built from 2022 Facebook friendship data for U.S. counties, ZIP codes, high schools, and colleges.
- University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute - County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
County-level measures of health outcomes and health factors, including housing, transportation, income, and clinical care, for nearly every U.S. county, with annual national datasets through 2025.
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health - Neighborhood Atlas: Area Deprivation Index
Area Deprivation Index for every census block group as national percentiles and state deciles, built from ACS income, education, employment, and housing data; latest version 2024 ADI.
- Washington Center for Real Estate Research, University of Washington - Housing Market Data Toolkit
Washington housing market indicators, including sales, prices, affordability, and rents, for the state and its counties.
- diversitydatakids.org, Boston University School of Social Work - Child Opportunity Index 3.0
Composite index of 44 neighborhood indicators in education, health and environment, and social and economic domains for every census tract, annually 2012-2024 (COI 3.0-2024).
Nonprofits
- AARP Public Policy Institute - Livability Index
Scores for any U.S. address or place across housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, health, engagement, and opportunity.
- American Public Transportation Association - Public Transportation Ridership Report
Quarterly unlinked passenger trips by mode for U.S. and Canadian transit agencies, compiled from agency reports.
- Center for Neighborhood Technology - National TOD Database
Demographic and economic profiles of areas around every existing and proposed U.S. fixed-guideway transit station; data from about 2010, not updated since.
- Inside Airbnb - Inside Airbnb Data
Scraped Airbnb listings, availability calendars, and reviews with coordinates for cities worldwide, including Seattle; quarterly snapshots for the past year are free, older archives by request.
- Land Use Atlas, Inc. - National Zoning Atlas
Standardized zoning district maps showing where housing types are allowed as of right or by hearing, with minimum lot size and parking rules, for 11,000+ U.S. jurisdictions.
- MobilityData - Mobility Database
Open catalog of 6,000+ GTFS, GTFS Realtime, and GBFS feeds worldwide with an API; successor to TransitFeeds.
- National Apartment Association - Survey of Operating Income and Expenses
Annual survey of rental apartment revenues and operating expenses (payroll, utilities, taxes, repairs) by market and property type; for purchase.
- National Association of Realtors - Existing-Home Sales
Monthly existing-home sales, median prices, and inventory for the nation and four regions, with metro-level median prices quarterly; historical files for purchase.
- National League of Cities - Civic Mapping Initiative
Maps and data on the proximity of public transit stops to public services, including community and technical college campuses.
- National Low Income Housing Coalition - Out of Reach
Annual Housing Wage needed to afford a HUD Fair Market Rent at 30 percent of income, for states, metro areas (HMFAs), and counties, with state spreadsheets; 2026 edition current.
- National Low Income Housing Coalition - The Gap
Annual estimates of affordable and available rental homes per 100 extremely low-income renter households for every state and the 50 largest metro areas.
- Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation and National Low Income Housing Coalition - National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD)
Property-level inventory of federally assisted rental housing with location, subsidy programs, and subsidy expiration dates; free registration required.
- Urban Institute - Urban Data Catalog
Searchable repository of Urban Institute open datasets on housing, workforce, education, health, nonprofits, and local government finance, including tract- and place-level products, with ongoing additions.
Private companies
- ATTOM (through Dewey) - Assessor History
Historical county assessor records for U.S. properties: assessed values, tax amounts, and property characteristics by year.
- ATTOM (through Dewey) - Automated Valuation Model (AVM) Data
Model-based market value estimates for U.S. residential properties, with confidence scores.
- ATTOM (through Dewey) - Community Information Layout
Neighborhood-level demographic, economic, crime, weather, and amenity indicators compiled for real estate analysis.
- ATTOM (through Dewey) - Pre-Foreclosure History
Property-level history of pre-foreclosure filings (notices of default, lis pendens, auctions) across the U.S.
- ATTOM (through Dewey) - Property, Tax, Deed, and Mortgage Data
ATTOM's nationwide property data on Dewey: assessor and tax records, deeds and sales, mortgages, foreclosures, and valuations (see the individual ATTOM datasets below).
- Advan Research - Patterns (Foot Traffic)
Weekly and monthly visit counts, dwell times, and visitor home census block groups for millions of U.S. and Canadian points of interest, continuing SafeGraph Patterns; history back to at least 2019.
- AirDNA - Short-Term Rental Data for Academics
Property-level Airbnb and Vrbo listing, occupancy, and revenue data for studying short-term rental markets; academic access by application.
- AirSage - Mobility and Origin-Destination Data
Location-based trip, origin-destination, and population movement data for North American transportation agencies and consultants; commercial.
- Builty (through Dewey) - United States Building Permits
National dataset of building permits with permit type, project value, dates, and property address.
- ClimateCheck (through Dewey) - Property Climate Risk Ratings
Property-level ratings of future flood, wildfire, heat, drought, and storm risk for U.S. addresses.
- CoStar Group - CoStar Commercial Real Estate Database
Property-level commercial real estate data on inventory, lease and sale comps, asking rents, vacancy, and forecasts for millions of properties across U.S. markets and submarkets.
- Construction Monitor (through Dewey) - Building Permits
National building permit records for residential and commercial construction, with permit type, project value, contractor, and address.
- Cotality (through Dewey) - Property Data (formerly CoreLogic)
Parcel-level assessor, deed, and mortgage records for more than 112 million U.S. residential properties, standardized from county assessor and recorder offices.
- Dewey - Data Platform (through UW Libraries)
Commercial datasets licensed by UW Libraries (real estate, foot traffic, business, and more); sign in with a UW NetID.
- Dwellsy (through Dewey) - Rental Listings and Rent Indices
More than 17 million U.S. rental listings since 2020 with 250+ standardized attributes (TotalIQ), plus monthly rent indices by geography (TrendsIQ).
- First American - Property, Mortgage, and Ownership Data
Nationwide property records, deed and mortgage transactions, and ownership data from First American Data and Analytics; commercial.
- Foursquare - Open Source Places
Open dataset of 100 million+ points of interest worldwide with category, address, and coordinates; free to download.
- Google - Environmental Insights Explorer
Modeled building and transportation greenhouse gas emissions, rooftop solar potential, and tree canopy cover for cities and regions worldwide, including Seattle, by year.
- Google - Open Buildings
About 1.8 billion building footprint detections with confidence scores across Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean (no U.S. coverage); v3 released 2023.
- HERE Technologies - Maps, Road Network, and Traffic Data
Commercial road network, points of interest, and historical and real-time traffic speed data used in routing and congestion analysis.
- L2 (through Dewey) - Voter File
About 217 million registered U.S. voters with address, vote history, and demographic attributes, plus historic snapshots 2014-2024; used to study residential moves and civic participation.
- Lightcast (through Dewey) - Labor Market Data
Online job postings, skills, occupations, and regional labor market statistics for economic development analysis.
- MarketCheck (through Dewey) - Vehicle Inventory and Sales
Daily VIN-level vehicle listings and sales from 100,000+ North American dealerships since 2017, usable for vehicle ownership and EV adoption studies.
- Microsoft - Global ML Building Footprints
About 1.4 billion machine-learned building footprints from 2014-2024 imagery worldwide, including the U.S., with height estimates for about 174 million; open license, last refreshed August 2026.
- Microsoft - US Building Footprints
About 130 million computer-generated building footprint polygons for all 50 states and DC, as state GeoJSON files, largely from 2019-2020 imagery; ODbL license.
- Moody's (Four Twenty Seven) - Physical Climate Risk Data
Physical climate risk scores (flood, heat, wildfire, sea level rise, storms) for real estate and other real assets; formerly Four Twenty Seven; commercial.
- NatureQuant (through Dewey) - NatureScore and Urban Heat Index
Measures of nearby nature exposure and urban heat island risk across the United States at resolutions as fine as 10 square meters.
- PassBy (through Dewey) - Retail Foot Traffic
Visit counts for 3 million+ U.S. retail points of interest across 7,000+ brands from a device panel, with a companion dataset of visitor demographics.
- PolicyMap - Mapping and Data Platform
Web mapping and download of thousands of indicators on demographics, housing, lending, health, and jobs at neighborhood, city, and national levels.
- REsimplifi (through Dewey) - Real Estate Listings for Commercial Properties
Commercial property listings (office, retail, industrial) with asking rents or prices, size, and location.
- Redfin - Redfin Data Center
Weekly and monthly housing market metrics from MLS data (sale prices, inventory, days on market, price drops, migration) for national, metro, county, city, ZIP, and neighborhood levels.
- RentHub (through Dewey) - United States Residential Rental Data
Listing-based rents and rental unit characteristics across U.S. metropolitan areas.
- Replica - Seasonal Trip Table and Synthetic Population
Modeled trip records (mode, purpose, route, timing) and a synthetic population with block-group home and work locations for a typical weekday and weekend; nationwide, released twice yearly.
- SafeGraph - Places
Global points of interest with coordinates, NAICS category, brand, and open and close dates, refreshed monthly since 2019; Dewey also carries SafeGraph U.S. Spend Patterns.
- Strava - Strava Metro
Aggregated, de-identified bike, run, and walk trip counts on street segments; free for planners, governments, and advocates, with an application-based academic program.
- StreetLight Data - StreetLight InSight Transportation Metrics
Vehicle, bike, and pedestrian volumes including AADT, origin-destination flows, turning movements, and VMT derived from connected-vehicle and location data for U.S. and Canadian roads.
- Trepp - Commercial Real Estate Finance Data
Loan- and property-level data on commercial mortgage-backed securities and commercial real estate lending, including delinquency and valuation; commercial.
- UrbanFootprint - Community Resilience and Land Use Data
Parcel- and block-level data on land use, infrastructure, climate hazards, and population vulnerability, delivered through a commercial platform.
- Veraset (through Dewey) - U.S. Mobility and Visits
Device-level visits to more than 4 million U.S. points of interest, with inferred home and work locations, built from privacy-protected mobile device signals.
- Walk Score - Walk Score, Transit Score, and Bike Score
Address-level 0-100 scores of walkability, transit access, and bikeability; free single lookups, bulk use through a licensed API.
- Zillow Group - Zillow Research Data (ZHVI and ZORI)
Monthly typical home values (ZHVI, 2000-present, down to neighborhoods) and observed asking rents (ZORI, 2015-present, down to ZIP codes), downloadable free as CSV.
- Zoneomics - Zoning Data
Standardized zoning districts, permitted uses, and development standards for U.S. municipalities, by map and API; commercial.
Crowdsourced and open communities
- Mapillary (Meta Platforms) - Mapillary Street-Level Imagery
Crowdsourced geotagged street-level photos covering 190+ countries plus machine-detected map features such as traffic signs, accessible through API v4 and vector tiles under CC BY-SA.
- OpenStreetMap contributors - Geofabrik Regional Extracts
Daily-updated OpenStreetMap extracts by continent, country, and U.S. state (e.g., Washington) in PBF, shapefile, and GeoPackage formats, hosted by Geofabrik GmbH.
- OpenStreetMap contributors - OpenStreetMap
Global crowdsourced map of streets, paths, transit, buildings, land use, and points of interest, edited continuously; full planet files and change diffs are free under ODbL.
- OpenStreetMap contributors - Overpass API and Overpass Turbo
Read-only query service for pulling selected OpenStreetMap features by tag and area, with the Overpass Turbo web interface for writing queries and exporting GeoJSON.
- Overture Maps Foundation - Overture Maps Data
Open global map data in six themes (places, buildings, transportation, addresses, divisions, base) as GeoParquet on AWS and Azure, released monthly since 2023.
- PurpleAir - PurpleAir Sensor Network
Real-time and historical PM2.5 readings from community-hosted low-cost air sensors worldwide; the map is free, while API downloads use a paid points system with starter credit.
International
- Digital Dubai - Dubai Pulse Open Data
Dubai government open data platform; hosts the Dubai Land Department transaction datasets with CKAN API access.
- Dubai Land Department - Real Estate Data
Open data on Dubai property sales, rents, projects, land, units, buildings, brokers, and developers, downloadable as CSV.
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Built on Just the Class developed by Kevin Lin at Allen School