Datadory notebook
Research-Consulting-Services Data Guide Data: Dataset Structure and Field Coverage
Datadory delivers research-consulting-services data guide data covering comprehensive field definitions, entity mappings, and historical time series — structured for direct analytics and delivered on demand.
1,744 datasets. Pick your catch.
The Research & Consulting Services data landscape in 2026
The research-consulting-services data hub at Datadory tracks 25 pooled datasets for the industry: 12 primary sources and 13 related datasets drawn from adjacent slices - SAM.gov contract awards and BryceTech space reports (aerospace and defense), the US Census Economic Census and data.europa.eu (commercial printing), the UK Business Register and Employment Survey (diversified support services), SEC EDGAR full-text search, Eurostat, OECD.Stat, the World Bank's World Development Indicators, Companies House, India's data.gov.in and data.gov.uk. Consultants borrow these neighboring records constantly, but the industry's own story sits in two families that rarely overlap.
On the official side, government statistical agencies supply the market-size numbers. USAspending.gov exposes every federal contract, grant, loan and direct payment filterable by NAICS 5416 (management consulting) and 5417 (R&D services) through a free public API and multi-terabyte bulk archives - the only quality-10 source in the slice. The U.S. Census Bureau's Service Annual Survey and Quarterly Services Survey track NAICS 54 revenue and expenses quarterly, with the QSS carrying roughly 90 industry rows per table back to its 2004 start. NCSES publishes Annual Business Survey and BERD R&D tables - 33-plus published tables per ABS cycle plus public-use microdata covering hundreds of thousands of businesses. UNESCO's UIS adds R&D expenditure and researchers-per-million series for roughly 160 countries from 1996 to 2024, and the UK ONS Annual Business Survey reported £1,725.2bn of approximate gross value added across sections A-S in its 2024 release.
On the supplier side, trade bodies and media portals map the agencies rather than the market. GreenBook Directory lists 1,000-plus verified profiles across 50-plus countries classified against a roughly 397-item specialty taxonomy. Quirk's Directories spreads thousands of firms across roughly 24 country pages, with the United States deepest at 362 listed companies. The Market Research Society's Research Buyers Guide accredits UK and Ireland suppliers, and MrWeb runs a nightly-refreshed global jobs index carrying roughly 2,100-3,000 live postings alongside a Daily Research News archive of approximately 31,000-35,000 articles built since 2000.
The core datasets to know
Twelve primary sources carry this slice. They group into four clusters.
Government statistical agencies
Multilateral and API-native sources
USAspending.gov - Federal spending by NAICS (U.S. Department of the Treasury) - quality 10, the highest-scored dataset in the slice and the strongest single starting point. Coverage runs from FY2007 to the current fiscal year (FY2026 archives present) at transaction level, rolled up to award, recipient, agency, subagency, NAICS industry, PSC and geography including place-of-performance down to county and district. The public API requires no authorization, monthly bulk archives are accessible on demand, and the FY2024 full contracts archive alone is a 2.0 GB zipped CSV (FY2008 contracts: 1.3 GB). The platform itself is open-source on GitHub.
Supplier directories and industry portals
Quirk's Directories - quality 6 and free to browse without login; the site states it never charges readers a membership fee. Thousands of companies span roughly 24 country pages with the United States deepest at 362 firms, and individual specialties range from about 60 to about 190 entries. Profiles cover services, industries served, employee count, contacts and certifications.
MrWeb - Market Research Industry Portal - quality 5 and the talent signal: the Daily Research News Online archive of approximately 31,000-35,000 articles dating to 2000, a global jobs index of c.2,100-3,000 live postings refreshed nightly with dedicated UK, USA, Asia and Australia feeds, and the InsightClopedia company directory. Browsing and email registration are free; the site uses no cookies and runs on advertising revenue.
Rankings and benchmarking
Vault - Consulting Firm Rankings - quality 7 and unique in the slice: annual practitioner-survey rankings of 50 firms per list - the Vault Consulting 50 for North America plus separate EMEA, APAC and practice-area lists - scoring prestige, culture, satisfaction, compensation and work/life balance. The 2026 edition was live at review time with prior-year comparison to 2025, viewable free without registration. robots.txt permits crawling even though commercial redistribution of the copyrighted rankings needs permission.
Insights Association - quality 6 and the only source of data-quality benchmarking here: GDQ spans 13 countries and roughly 1.8 million survey records per edition, with the H1 2026 edition current at review time, alongside a 2026 Market Report, codes of standards and privacy compliance resources. Standards and most news read free in HTML and PDF; some benchmarking reports and model contracts sit behind company membership.
Research & Consulting Services data by use case
Ten use cases recur across the industry, and each maps onto named sources:
Who uses this data
Four working styles explain almost all demand for these sources.
Market researchers buy and vet supplier capacity. Queries like "market research supplier directory" and "market research data quality benchmarks" resolve to GreenBook's 1,000-plus verified profiles, Quirk's Directories and the MRS Research Buyers Guide, with the Insights Association's GDQ - roughly 1.8 million survey records per edition across 13 countries - supplying the quality yardstick. Our dedicated page for market researchers collects the datasets that fit that loop.
Competitive-intelligence analysts track who wins public money. "Federal consulting contract spending data" lands on USAspending.gov, sliced by NAICS 5416 and 5417, agency, recipient and place-of-performance county and district geography, with monthly bulk archives reaching back to FY2007.
Strategy consultants and economists assemble the headline numbers. "Consulting industry revenue statistics" resolves to the Census SAS/QSS NAICS 54 series, "R&D spending by country" to UNESCO UIS across roughly 160 countries, and "UK professional services GVA data" to the ONS Annual Business Survey's £1,725.2bn aGVA release.
Two narrower audiences round out the map: recruiters and MBA candidates searching "consulting firm prestige rankings" land on Vault's Consulting 50, and talent teams watching the "market research industry jobs board" query end up on MrWeb's nightly-refreshed index of c.2,100-3,000 live postings.
How to build a Research & Consulting Services data stack
A practical stack layers six capabilities in order:
What the numbers say
These figures are worth quoting straight from the current catalog:
| Statistic | Figure |
|---|---|
| Pooled datasets cataloged for Research & Consulting Services | 25 (12 primary, 13 related) |
| Highest quality score in the slice | 10 - USAspending.gov |
| Published data tables per NCSES ABS cycle | 33-plus, plus public-use microdata |
| Countries reporting UNESCO UIS R&D indicators | Roughly 160, 1996-2024 |
| UK approximate gross value added, ONS ABS 2024 | £1,725.2bn across sections A-S |
| Live postings in MrWeb's jobs index | c.2,100-3,000, refreshed nightly |
| Survey records in the Insights Association's GDQ per edition | About 1.8 million across 13 countries |
Keep reading
Three pages extend this guide:
Pick up where this leaves off
Every one of these ships with sample rows before you commit to anything.
UNESCO UIS Data Browser - R&D Statistics
INDICATOR_ID · INDICATOR_LABEL_EN · COUNTRY_ID …+5 more
Want rows instead of a pitch? Name the datasets.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Get a sampleQuestions worth asking
How do I see which consulting firms win US federal contracts?
USAspending.gov, the U.S. Treasury's official spending platform, filters every federal contract, grant, loan and direct payment by NAICS code - 5416 for management consulting and 5417 for R&D services. Its public API requires no authorization, and monthly bulk archives reach back to FY2007, with FY2024 contracts alone a 2.0 GB zipped CSV.
Which directories list market research agencies and focus group facilities?
Three dominate: GreenBook Directory with 1,000+ verified supplier profiles across 50+ countries filterable by roughly 400 specialties; Quirk's Directories, whose deepest country page lists 362 US firms; and the Market Research Society's Research Buyers Guide of accredited UK and Ireland suppliers. All three browse free without a login.
Where can I benchmark survey data quality?
The Insights Association publishes GDQ data-quality benchmarking spanning 13 countries and roughly 1.8 million survey records per edition, with the H1 2026 edition current at review time. Its codes of standards and privacy compliance resources read free; some benchmarking reports and model contracts are restricted to company members.
How do I track hiring trends in the market research industry?
MrWeb runs a global market research jobs index carrying roughly 2,100-3,000 live postings refreshed nightly, with dedicated feeds for the UK, USA, Asia and Australia. Its Daily Research News archive of about 31,000-35,000 articles since 2000 adds context on firm wins, mergers and leadership changes. Browsing and email registration are free.
Which consulting firms rank highest for prestige and culture?
Vault's annual consulting firm rankings - the Vault Consulting 50 for North America plus separate EMEA, APAC and practice-area lists - score firms on prestige, culture, satisfaction, compensation and work/life balance using surveys of consulting professionals. The 2026 edition covers 50 firms per list and is free to view without registration.