The U.S. Census Bureau is the primary resource for U.S. demographic data (United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas), and the primary tool for accessing it is American FactFinder. It is fairly easy to use, and convenient since it includes data from several censuses and surveys including:

• The American Community Survey
• The American Housing Survey
• three Annual Economic Surveys: Annual Survey of Manufactures, Business Patterns, and Nonemployer Statistics  
• The Decennial Census (every 10 years) (age, sex, race, housing units and more)
• The Economic Census (every 5 years)
• The Population Estimates Program

See the training guide for American FactFinder (AFF) for help

• Information about towns in Oregon (including Portland) in the Oregon Rural Explorer
• Income data from the Current Population Survey
• Consumer Spending data from Consumer Expenditures Surveys
• StateMaster compares statistics between different states in the US -- for example you can compare the percentage of toothless Americans over 65 years of age in every state.
• The online mapping database SimplyAnalytics enables users to develop interactive thematic maps and reports using thousands of demographic, business, and marketing data variables. Recently added Health questions. (Limited to OSU users only. Free registration is recommended though not required.)

This new site is amazing! It gives you one-stop access to many useful U.S. data sites and tools especially useful for economic development. Some of the things included on the site are:

Data Profiles

• Build a Neighborhood Profile
• Counties in Profile
• Innovation Data Browser (Industry Clusters, Occupation Clusters)
• QWI Explorer
• States in Profile
• Cluster Mapping

Tools

• Big Radius Tool
• Build a Neighborhood Profile
• City-to-County Finder
• County Peer Finder
• Custom Region Builder
• Innovation Index
• Measuring Distress
• Triple Bottom Line Tool
• Cluster Mapping

StatsAmerica is a service of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. This initiative is funded in part by the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration.

Economic Census Portal

The portal into the Census Bureau's Economic Statistics programs and surveys.

Here is a slideshow, originally presented by the Census Bureau on December 11, 2012, that goes over the Economic Census and a few other programs. Exercises are included. It is a useful introduction to using Economic Census data--including NAICS.

https://www.census.gov/mso/www/training/pdf/econ_Dec2012.pdf