Each of these sites has extensive links to government demographic, economic and commercial data and reports. Every market researcher should spend time familiarizing themselves with these sites and the wealth of data they contain. The main page provides links to topical areas and to the bureau itself. Over the past couple of years the site has improved greatly providing greater access to data and more tools to make the process of finding and gathering the data easier - and in many cases even faster. Interactive tools for finding place names, census extracts, labor and economic statistics are provided.
Downloadable software is available.
Market researchers should also be aware of a very useful site for historical census data. We are often asked to look at trends. Furthermore, being able to show how demographic characteristics have changed over time and now differ from the assumptions that drove decisions and strategies long entrenched in many companies can provide useful ammunition for selling new strategies. A project at the University of Minnesota has made access to data from previous censuses easy and free. The project plans to add data from over twenty other countries as well.