You don’t always need to begin your data collection from scratch when conducting global market research. There are numerous websites available online that have up-to-date databases on various demographics and industries. While they may not be a perfect fit for your brand's target audience, they can provide a broader picture of possibilities for your project and help you decide where to focus your efforts. We’ve compiled 4 invaluable websites that you can use to jumpstart your project with reliable market research data.

1. Economic Indicators by Moody’s Analytics

Economic Indicators by Moody’s Analytics offers everything from comprehensive demographic breakdowns to insights into larger spending patterns. Their catalog provides global data across a variety of populations and industries, but it is most useful for companies targeting the markets of the United States. The website is completely free to use, and you can navigate between different countries' information by clicking on their respective locations on a world map displayed on their homepage.

2. Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center is a non-profit organization that conducts research and analysis on a variety of topics, including US politics and policies, public opinion, social and demographic trends, news and media, science, religion, technology and the internet, Hispanic interest, global interest, and so on. Their website is publicly accessible and even includes in-depth information on topics such as:

• Social Media
• Online Privacy
• Broadband Access
• The Internet of Things

3. Living Facts

Living Facts is a website created by the Pew Charitable Trusts that contains statistics, educational quizzes, and random facts packaged in attractive and colorful designs and infographics. Their publicly available database includes the following items:

• Communities
• Democracy
• Demographics
• Faith
• Health
• Money
• Trends
• Work

4. US Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau generates economic data for the entire American economy on a monthly, quarterly, yearly, and quinquennial basis. Their website catalog is completely free to the public, and they even provide instructional videos on how you can make the most of their database. Their website also provides invaluable tools such as:

• Consumer Price Index and Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Money statistics from Federal Reserve Banks
• Earnings by Occupation and Education
• Income Statistics
• Employment and Unemployment Statistics
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

1. Bonus Tools for Data Visualization and Analysis
   

Accessing and recording valuable data is one thing, but organizing that data visually for further analysis is an entirely different process altogether. Since we’ve already elaborated on a few websites you can turn to for demographic and industry data, here are helpful tools you can use to present the data you gather.

R Studio is a free, open-source integrated development environment that provides a set of statistical analysis tools to use with their preferred language and environment software, R. While R is fully capable of statistical computing, data manipulation, and graphics, you must be familiar with coding before you can create custom statistical analyses.

If you're looking for a tool that doesn't require programming knowledge like R studio, the premium data visualization tool Tableau may be ideal for you. While not a free tool, their services can help you visualize and understand your market research data through analytics and business intelligence. Here’s how Tableau works:

• It extracts data from PDFs, Excel, text, R, Hadoop, Python, and SAS files and saves it to cloud databases.
• Tableau desktop collects data, analyzes it, and then presents it as an interactive and shareable dashboard with colorful charts and tables that highlight patterns and variances.
• Data can be published, along with features like collaboration and automation.
• You can view your visualized data via email, mobile, and desktop.

We’ve also written an article on the best practices in organizing your audio and video for efficient market research. If you're looking for a reliable project media management platform to organize your research, Civicom Marketing Research Services offers Glide Central designed especially with insights professionals' needs in mind.