Sources of downloadable data sets

• National Center for Educational Statistics http://www.ed.gov/NCES/surveys/datasurv.html
  Large amounts of educational data. Descriptions of the data sets are accessable from this page: the data itself is downloadable in raw form.
• The Census Bureaus's Data Extraction System (DES) http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/DES/www/welcome.html
  Downloadable data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Current Population survey (CPS), American Housing Survey (AHS), Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), and the Decennial Census Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS).
• Data Archives of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan http://www.psc.lsa.umich.edu/DA/
  The list of their holdings is so large I had to increase Netscape's memory allocation just to view the full list. However, these holdings are searchable by keyword.
• The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) http://www.umich.edu/~psid/index.html
  The PSID is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and the families in which they reside. It has been ongoing since 1968. The data are collected annually, and the data files contain the full span of information collected over the course of the study. PSID data can be used for cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intergenerational analysis and for studying both individuals and families.
• CIESIN's Data Resources http://www.ciesin.org/datasets/us-demog/us-demog-home.html
  These include Economic Census data; County Business Patterns; County City Data Book; Supplement to the Statistical Abstract; National, Economic, and Social, and Environmental Databank; Regional Economic Information System, and Enhanced County to County Migration, 1985-1990.
• Selective access to Bureau of Labor Statistics data http://www.bls.gov/sahome.html
  This page allows you to customize data extracts from the Bureau of Labor Statstics. Output is in much more raw form that that presented on the Most Requested Series Page.