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Sites listed on this page provide free data download/access.

More sites (free or fee-based) can be found at GIS Data Sources written by Drew Decker (available at Keck GIS Commons).

US Data

• Bureau of Census datasets
  NOTE: Data are not in GIS format but can be incorporated into GIS.
  
  
• Climate data (temperature and precipitation) from PRISM Group at Oregon State University. Including 1971-2000 normals at 30 arc-sec (800 m) and 2.5 arc-min (4 km), and 1890-2006 monthly data at 2.5 arc-min (4 km)
  
  
• Domestic Names - State and Topical Gazetteer Download Files from US Board on Geographic Names
  NOTE: Data downloaded are tables with coordinates for selected features. Use ArcMap "Add x,y data" function to bring data into ArcMap.
  
  
• EPA Envirofacts Data Warehouse - one-stop source for environmental information
  NOTE: Data are not in GIS format but can be brought to GIS software. Locations are often stored as latitude/longitude or addresses and may require data clean-up work before data can be brought into GIS.
  
  
• ESRI Census 2000 data
  
  
• ESRI World Basemap data
  
  
• GAP Analysis data and report
  
  
• GIS Data Depot - selected datasets free to download
  
  
• Mineral Resources On-line Spatial Data
  
  
• MRLC Data Download Site - serving National LandCover Dataset
  
  
• National Atlas of the United States map layers
  
  
• National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System GIS data
  
  
• The National Map - serving data from participating government agencies
  Go to The National Map Viewer
  
  
• National Park Service GIS data
  
  
• Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Data Mart
  
  
• National Weather Data in GIS formats from National Weather Service - some datasets are served as real-time data, updated every 1-2 minutes
  
  
• National Wetlands Inventory data
  
  
• NHD Geodatabase - serving National Hydrology Dataset
  Also available FTP Download
  
  
• USDA Geospatial Data Gateway - one-stop source for natural resource data
  

• USGS Seamless Data Distribution System - serving government datasets for places, structures, transportation, boundaries, hydrography, orthoimagery, land cover, and elevation
  
  
• Starting the Hunt - Guide to Mostly On-Line and Mostly Free U.S. Geospatial and Attribute Data at University of Arkansas Libraries

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US States Data

• Colorado Geographic Information Center
  
  
• Idaho Department of Water Resources GIS Data
  
  
• Montana Geographic Information Clearinghouse
  
  
• New Mexico Resource Geographic Information System (RGIS)
  
  
• Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC)
  
  
• Washington State Department of Transportation GIS Data
  Transportation related data including state highway system, Capital Improvement and Preservation Program projects, freight and goods transportation system, roads, tunnels, bridges, ferry routes, roadside landscape classifications, etc., as well as non-transportation data
  
  
• Wyoming Geographic Information Advisory Council GIS Clearinghouse
  
  
• Wyoming Natural Resources Data Clearinghouse at University of Wyoming

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Foreign Countries

• Australia - Geoscience Australia
  
  
• Canada - GeoGratis: distributes geospatial data of Canada
  
  
• China - The China Archive at Texas A&M University
  NOTE: Need to create an account (free) to access data
  
  
• China - China Historical GIS (CHGIS) at Harvard Yenching Institute
  NOTE: Need to register to download (free) data
  
  
• Europe - European Environment Agency (EEA) Geographic Data
  
  
• Europe - United Nations Environment Program Global Resource Information Database - Europe

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Data Outside the Earth

• USGS Planetary GIS Web Server - download GIS data for the Moon, Mars, Mercury, etc.

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