Datasets on this page are copyrighted for use by current Baruch students, faculty, and staff for non-profit, educational, and research purposes. Commercial use and redistribution of the data is prohibited. These datasets cannot be distributed publicly over the Internet; current members of Baruch College should use their Baruch email address and contact the geospatial data librarian to access restricted datasets. If you are NOT affiliated with Baruch College CUNY you may NOT request access.
ReferenceUSA's historical data files contain records for each business in its US business database from 1997 to 2014, with most of the attributes that are available in their current database product (including XY longitude and latitude coordinates that allow the data to be plotted and mapped using GIS software). Current members of the Baruch community can request specific extracts of these files by year, geographic area, and business type or name.
To request an extract you must use your Baruch email address and submit the following information to the geospatial librarian (alternatively you can request an appointment to discuss your project needs):
- Your full name
- Your department and concentration
- Year(s) of data that you're interested in (between 1997 and 2014)
- Geographic area (state and county or metro area or ZIP Codes)
- Type of business (please use 2 to 6 digit NAICS codes)
- Name of a specific business (if type doesn't apply)
- A general description of why you're requesting the data and what you'll use it for
This resource is for users who want to study historical change in individual business establishments in a given area over time. If you are looking for current data use the ReferenceUSA database instead. If you are looking for historical or contemporary summaries of business establishments (i.e. sums or counts of businesses by type and geography) use the Census Bureau's County or ZIP Code Business Patterns data instead.