Community Information Now

Timely and trustworthy local data

Data Explorer

The Data Explorer allows you to quickly find vetted, trustworthy data by topic, by county, or by special focus area. CI:Now has pulled this collection together to make it faster to find good, relevant data and information.

What’s New?

We’re renovating and completely updating the Data Explorer!

We appreciate your patience as we add several years of new content and make improvements. As one part of that work we’re creating a COVID-19 focus area to pull together valuable local data resources others have developed.

Follow @CINow on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter to hear about new resources added to the Explorer,. In the meantime, see what’s been most recently added or updated by clicking here or just hitting “Search” with no filters selected.

Know of something we should consider for addition to the Explorer? Please let us know!

How Do I Use the Explorer?

The collection is organized as “Indicators” with “Resources” attached to them. An indicator is a narrow issue or topic and a Resource is some kind of data or information related to that Indicator.

Searching for Indicators. Please use the menu at right to dive right in – below are some ways you can search. Don’t forget to click “Clear Form” before starting a new search.

  • Full list. To see the full list of indicators available, just click “Search” with no search filters selected.
  • Keyword search. Enter one or more keywords and click “Search”.
  • Topic. Choose a broad topic area using the Topic pull-down menu and click “Search”.
  • Limit the search. Check a box to limit the search to results matching that filter and click “Search”. For example, checking “Bexar” under “Limit by County” and “Zip” under “Limit by Geographic Scope” will find only indicators with zip code-level data for Bexar County.

Viewing an Indicator. However you search, you’ll get a list of “indicators” returned to you. When you see an indicator that interests you, click on it. You’ll be taken to a page with information about that indicator – notes, dates, source, and other information.

Viewing a Resource. You’ll also see a list of “Resources” for that Indicator, which might be narrative report, a map, a data file, or some other format. Click on the name of the Resource to see it. If it doesn’t display correctly, look for “Remove Frame” at the top right of the screen and click that.

FAQ

One of your links is broken. Can you help?
This site links to a large number of external sites, and urls change pretty often. If you find a broken link, let us know and if the data resource still exists, we’ll find the current url for you. Please use our Contact form to report the link, and be sure to provide a current email address so we can get back to you once we have a corrected link.

Why is there data only for 12 counties? Can I contact CI:Now for information on my county?
While we do have some statewide data, CI:Now primarily serves Bexar and surrounding counties in south central Texas. Our capacity to help with special requests within or outside of our service area depends on the level of general funding and staff availability, as well as how short the timeline is to complete the request. Please contact us if you’d like to talk about a special request.

I’m looking at an indicator but I don’t see any resources attached to it. Am I searching wrong?
We do our best to maintain the content in Data Explorer, but sometimes we miss things. If you find an indicator with no resource attached, we’d really appreciate your letting us know so we can fix it.

Why doesn’t CI:Now have the subject/place/variable I’m interested in?
As a general rule, datasets are acquired by CI:Now for one (or more) of three reasons: (1) CI:Now staff determine that the data are of significant interest to a large proportion of the population of the 12 CI:Now counties; (2) an agency contracts with CI:Now to compile data in a specific subject area such as children or mental health, or in a specific geographic area such as Comal County; and/or (3) a third party collects primary (e.g., survey results) or secondary data (e.g., vital statistics) and “donates” those data to CI:Now to expand the warehouse of information available to the community.

Primarily because of methodological problems with small sample or population sizes but also because of the importance of preserving confidentiality, data are less likely to be available for small or less populous geographic areas. Similarly, datasets may not be broken down by all variables of interest (e.g., age, census tract).

CI:Now welcomes data partners and suggestions for additional indicators or datasets.

Last revised 10/2021