VT Census Case Studies : Department of Commerce Economic Indicators

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

Housing related indicators on the site include: new residential construction and sales, homeownership rate, and rental vacancy rate. The link to access this data takes the user directly to the Census page for that data based.

The data hub list to many other agencies in the US government that collect data on various parts of the economy. Similar set up to data.gov .

Link: http://www.commerce.gov/economicindicators

 https://data.commerce.gov/

Date Inventory Completed: 7/10/2015 

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Housing: Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

The mission of the Department is to create the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. As part of the Obama administration’s economic team, the Secretary of Commerce serves as the voice of U.S. business within the President’s Cabinet.  The Strategic Plan is how the Department maintains its focus on achieving its Open for Business Agenda.

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision-making, and helping to set industrial standards.  The data hub site is a first-release of the Commerce Data Hub, our platform to connect data customers with the data they need.

  • Who else uses the data?

Researchers, non-profits, business groups

  • Who do they sell the data to?

Free

 

Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Varies between data source

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Designed collection

  • If designed, who created the questions?

Entities from the original department /group who gathered that data

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Housing data comes the Census.  Other data comes from a wide collection of government agencies that collect data various aspects of the economy. See https://data.commerce.gov/

Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Economic Indicators

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

Varies

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

Yes

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Unknown


Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

The United States economy


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

Varies

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

Varies

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

Free

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO

ExplanationThis site is more of a data hub to access other data throughout the US government about the state of the economy and housing market. Much of the housing indicators comes direct from the census itself.