Do I need advanced math to do an economics research project in high school?

No. Comparing averages, growth over time or differences between groups is a real analysis, and a spreadsheet can handle it. Add more advanced methods later if your question needs them.

Where can I find free economic data?

US agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau publish data on their own sites, and the World Bank publishes country indicators. Read each dataset's documentation before you use it.

Can an economics project prove that one thing caused another?

Usually not. Public data can show that two things moved together, but showing cause takes careful design. State your finding as a pattern, and name other explanations you could not rule out.

Economics Research Project Ideas for High School Students

Choosing a topic is an early step in our guide on how to do research in high school. Many economics idea lists give you a title and stop. This page starts from the data instead, so each idea below comes with a free source you can open and a simple method for using it.

What makes a good economics research project for a high school student?

A good economics project is one narrow question that a public dataset can answer. Start from the data you can reach, then write a question that compares two places, two groups or two periods. “Does inflation hurt people?” cannot be measured. “How did the prices in one category of goods change compared with wages in one region?” can.

Check each idea against four points before you commit:

Check	What to ask
Measure	Can the question be answered with numbers that someone already collected?
Comparison	Does it compare two places, groups or periods?
Access	Can you download the data today, with documentation?
Rules	Does it avoid collecting information from people?

If an idea fails the access check, change the idea rather than the standard. Our general guide to picking a research project idea you can finish covers the same screen for every subject.

Which public data sources work for economics projects?

Several free sources cover prices, jobs, income and country indicators, and each agency documents its own data. The table lists what each one says about itself, so you can match a source to your question.

Source	What the agency says it provides	Good for
BLS Consumer Price Index	A measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of goods and services^[3]	Inflation and price questions
BLS Current Population Survey	Labor force information, including people who are employed, unemployed or not in the labor force^[4]	Jobs and unemployment questions
BEA data	Topics including GDP, consumer spending, income and saving, trade and employment, for the nation, states and local areas^[5]	Regional income and output
Census ACS	An ongoing survey with yearly information on topics such as jobs and occupations, educational attainment and housing^[6]	Comparing communities
DOL state minimum wage history	Tables of the federal rate beside rates for each state, by year^[7]	Policy comparisons over time
World Bank Open Data	World Development Indicators, browsable by country or indicator^[8]	Cross-country questions
FRED	Tools and resources to find and use economic data worldwide, with an API^[1]	Pulling many series into one place

Two access notes. FRED says all web service requests require an API key,^[2] so plan a few minutes to set up an account. The World Bank says CC BY 4.0 is the default license for datasets it produces itself, which allows copying and sharing with credit, though it lists other terms for some data.^[9]

What are some economics research project ideas you can start with?

Each idea below is a hypothetical starting point, not a finished question. Narrow the place, group and period before you begin, and open the source to confirm the variables you need exist.

Prices and wages. Compare how one price category changed against wages in one region. Use the CPI for prices^[3] and employment or earnings tables for pay.
Minimum wage and local jobs. Compare employment across states that set different minimum wages, using the state rate tables^[7] and labor force data.^[4] Treat this as a pattern study, not proof of a cause.
Income across regions. Compare personal income or consumer spending across states or metro areas using BEA data.^[5]
Education and jobs in a community. Compare communities by educational attainment and occupations using the ACS.^[6]
Development across countries. Compare one indicator, such as a health or schooling measure, across a handful of countries using World Development Indicators.^[8]
Tracking one series over time. Pull a single economic series through FRED and describe when it changed direction.^[1]

Each project fits a short paper, a chart set or a poster. If you want a lab-based route instead, see our guide to getting a lab position.

How do you turn a dataset into a research project?

Turn a dataset into a project by writing the question, the method and the stopping point before you open a spreadsheet. A plan written first keeps you from hunting for a result and then describing it as if you had planned it.

Follow these steps:

Write one question that compares two places, groups or periods.
Name the exact table or series, and read its documentation for definitions and any breaks in how it was collected.
Download the data and keep an untouched copy.
Clean it in a spreadsheet or a short script, and write down every change you make.
Compare the groups with averages, changes over time or simple charts.
Write what the pattern shows, what it does not show and what other explanations remain.
Share it as a short paper, a poster or a class presentation.

The documentation step matters most. Agencies define terms such as employed, income or price index in specific ways, and a comparison is only fair if you use the same definition on both sides. Read published papers on your question before you start, as our hub guide explains.

Does an economics project need ethics approval?

A project that uses existing public data usually needs less review than one that collects information from people. Society for Science, which sets rules for science fair projects, says research with human participants must be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board before any interaction begins.^[10] It lists data or record review as exempt when the data come from preexisting datasets that are publicly available or published, with no interaction with people.^[10]

A survey of classmates or neighbors is different. It counts as human participant research, and for participants under 18 the same rules require the student’s assent and written parental permission.^[10] If your economics question needs fresh survey answers, consider whether a public survey already measures it.

These are science fair rules. A school, a mentor or a journal may set its own, so ask before you start.

What should you do next?

Open two sources from the table, find a variable that matches an idea you like, and write your question in one sentence. Then read a few published papers that use the same data. When you later describe the finished work, state your role and results accurately, as in our guide to describing research on the Common App, and see how a project can become an essay in turning a research project into a college essay. If you want an outside view of how your overall profile reads, the free review on ivy-league.io is built for that.

What do we not know?

The sources and ideas here are examples, not a complete or ranked list, and the starter questions are hypothetical. Agencies revise their data, change definitions and update access terms, so read the current documentation for any series you use. Public data can show that things moved together, and it rarely shows that one caused the other. Ethics rules cited here are for science fair projects, and schools, mentors and journals set their own. We do not know which project types teachers, mentors or admissions readers find most useful, and no source we know of shows that any project changes an admission decision.