Online Mapping Tools

The Census Bureau's new official site for recent demographic data and more. Replaces American Fact Finder.

Gathers together interactive maps and visualization tools produced by the Census Bureau, including the Census Data Mapper, Rural American : A Story Map, and On The Map (Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics).

Lists public health maps from CDC and other federal and non-federal organizations. Includes HealthLandscape and the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

Data dashboards for mortality and natality, including recent provisional data.

Mapping tools and quick interactive maps presenting topics such as grants, health care shortage and need, or HRSA-supported health care resources by nation, state, and county.

Nationwide county-level online mapping for rural populations, jobs, economic dependence and oil/gas counties, income and poverty, and veteran status. Also see ERS's Data Visualizations.

The EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Too, a mapping tool provides demographic and health data.

Geographical economic data.

The National Map by the USGS provides datasets ranging from historical topographic maps to national hydrographic and transportation.

Includes data from the U.S. Census and ACS, along with data from other government agencies, research institutes, and non-profit organizations related to the economy, education, environment, equity, food, and health. Most data are recent, and available geography varies by data set.

DEFUNCT? Information about arts & culture nonprofits and businesses by geography. Also includes event permits and demographic and land use data. For more information, see the project overview.

Map data related to health, education, and income

Provides national Map Room with 15,000+ data layers and Community Health Needs Assessment reporting tool with 80+ health-related indicators to ensure that communities, organizations, and agencies that rely on free access to the maps and tools can continue to get reliable data and visualization tools. Produced by the Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES) at the University of Missouri.

US State-level mapping of annual mortality rates and life expectancy x age x gender, 1959-2016. Based upon state-level life tables generated by the United States Mortality Database (USMD).

Esri's answer to popular web mapping sites. Use Esri's data or upload your own shapefiles with a maximum of 1000 features.

ArcGIS is a desktop application for mapping geographic data. Capable of importing and editing data in various formats and for powerful geographic analysis.

Map your own data using this cloud-based mapping software. Georectified historical maps may be used as basemaps. Note: As of January 2017, Carto is transitioning to a new platform, Carto Builder. While this includes new functionality, the interface has changed; anticipate changes when using guides and documentation.

Heat maps and other visualization tools, for working with your own uploaded data. A simple way to quickly geocode addresses.

Create simple maps using the Google maps interface.

Palladio is a web-based platform for the visualization of complex, multi-dimensional data. You can use it to plot and analyze point data. Click for an introductory tutorial from Miriam Posner.

Quantum GIS is an open source GIS project that runs on both Windows and Mac.

For users of the statistical programming language R, this package can draw simple maps.

"StoryMapJS is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events." It allows you to integrate multimedia files with point data.

Combine ArcGIS online maps with multimedia content. Requires an ArcGIS Online account. Swipe and spyglass apps allow map comparisons (for example, historical and contemporary maps of the same place.)

Quickly build interactive maps based on states, counties, ZIP codes or countries. Desktop version freely available to students.

Open source system from Harvard for creating maps, uploading and downloading shapefiles and KMLs.