Data Sources & Methodology
Beyond Academic City Intelligence integrates authoritative public information from national statistical agencies, government departments, and official public-data systems. Data is organized and standardized to support comparison and exploration across university cities.
Official Public Data Sources
City Intelligence prioritizes authoritative public data from official government and national statistical sources. Sources vary by country, city, module, geographic coverage, and data availability.
United States
- U.S. Department of Education-College Scorecard Integrated
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)-Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Integrated
- United States Census Bureau Integrated
- United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD User Data API) Integrated
- United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) Integrated
- United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Integrated
- United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Integrated
- United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Canada
- Statistics Canada
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
- Government of Canada Open Government
United Kingdom
- Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- United Kingdom Government Open Data
Germany
- Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis)
- Federal Employment Agency of Germany
Japan
- Statistics Bureau of Japan
- Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan (e-Stat)
China
- National Bureau of Statistics of China
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
Singapore
- Singapore Department of Statistics
- Singapore Government Open Data Portal
Australia
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- Australian Government Open Data
How City Intelligence Uses Public Data
U.S. Higher Education Data Integration
For the United States, City Intelligence combines institution and education data from IPEDS with College Scorecard indicators. IPEDS supports official institution, program/CIP, completions, and related higher-education reference data, while College Scorecard supplements the master data layer with measures such as student size, admissions, tuition, net price, completion, earnings, and student debt where available.
Beyond Academic standardizes these official sources into a common university and city data structure so Programs Finder, City Finder, and City Intelligence can use consistent institutional identifiers and comparable indicators.
Geographic Levels
Public datasets may represent city, county, metropolitan, state or province, regional, or national geographic levels.
When city-level information is unavailable, City Intelligence may use the most relevant available official geographic dataset.
Data Standardization
Beyond Academic organizes data from multiple official sources into standardized City Intelligence categories so users can explore information through a consistent framework.
Data Updates
Update frequency varies by source. Public datasets may be updated monthly, quarterly, annually, or according to the publication schedule of the originating organization.
Data Traceability
Source, reporting period, geographic level, and retrieval information may be maintained within the City Intelligence data infrastructure to support verification and future updates.
This product uses the HUD User Data API but is not endorsed or certified by HUD User.