Data Is Plural

... is a weekly newsletter of useful/curious datasets.

2021.06.09 edition

US vaccinations over time, weekly gas prices, COVID-19 and fiscal accountability, Swiss glacier thicknesses, and mathematical proofs.

US vaccinations over time. The CDC has begun publishing daily-historical data on vaccination progress in the US, going back to mid-December 2020. For the country overall, each state and territory, and a handful of other jurisdictions (e.g., the Bureau of Prisons), the dataset indicates the number of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and J&J/Janssen doses delivered, total doses administered by age group, percentages of populations fully vaccinated, and more. Less-detailed information is also available for each county over time and for national demographic trends. Related: My colleague Peter Aldhous has incorporated the CDC’s data into BuzzFeed News’ vaccination tracker.

Weekly gas prices. Every Monday, the Energy Information Administration collects data “on retail prices for regular, midgrade, and premium grades of gasoline from a sample of retail gasoline outlets across the United States using Form EIA-878, Motor Gasoline Price Survey Schedule A.” The survey informs the agency’s average gas price estimates, which are available at a national and regional level, as well as for a few selected states and cities, going back to the 1990s (though the sampling methodology changed in 2018). The EIA also collects data on diesel prices, using a separate survey.

COVID-19 and fiscal accountability. The International Budget Partnership has published an assessment of accountability in the emergency fiscal policies that 120 governments introduced between March and September 2020. The report’s downloadable data (see bottom of page) includes each policy package’s name, date introduced, and whether it was a legislative act or executive decree; ratings on various aspects of transparency, oversight, and participation; and scores on 26 specific questions. Related: The partnership’s Open Budget Survey and data explorer. [h/t Rajan Zaveri]

Swiss glacier thicknesses. “Using AIR-ETH, a new helicopter-borne ground-penetrating radar (GPR) platform,” Melchior Grab et al. “measured the ice thickness of all large and most medium-sized glaciers in the Swiss Alps during the years 2016–20. Most of these had either never or only partially been surveyed before.” The team’s latest inventory combines detailed geospatial data from this and previous surveys. Previously: The Randolph Glacier Inventory (DIP 2015.12.16).

Mathematical proofs. ProofWiki is “an online compendium of mathematical proofs,” with 21,000+ of them and counting. (It also provides lists of notable mathematicians and a page of jokes.) Sean Welleck et al.’s NaturalProofs dataset contains a processed version of the website’s XML dump, plus data derived from other proof-containing resources.