Learning
Data & Analytics
SQL, analysis, statistics in practice, and charts that tell the truth.
Where to start
SQL is the highest-return thing on this page for most office work, and SQLBolt will get you further in an afternoon than a week of video. Learn the query language before the analysis library. For charts, the Financial Times vocabulary will stop you making the three mistakes everybody makes.
SQL5
- SQLBoltStart hereFree
Interactive lessons that run in the page. No signup, no setup, and you can finish the core in an afternoon.
- Mode SQL TutorialCoreFree
Picks up where the basics stop: window functions, performance, and how analysts actually structure a query.
- Select Star SQLCoreFree
A book-length tutorial built around one real dataset, with queries executable inline.
- PostgreSQL TutorialCoreFree
Thorough and example-led. Useful even on another database, since most of it is standard SQL.
- Use The Index, LukeAdvancedFree
How database indexes actually work. The single best explanation of why your query is slow.
Analysis and statistics5
- pandas: Getting startedCoreFree
The official entry point, with comparison guides for people arriving from Excel or SQL.
- Seeing TheoryStart hereFree
Probability and statistics as interactive visualisations. The clearest explanation of confidence intervals anywhere.
- StatQuestStart hereFree
Statistics and machine learning explained slowly and without hand-waving. The go-to when a concept has not landed.
- Think StatsCoreFree
Statistics taught through programming rather than formulas, with the whole book free online.
- PolarsAdvancedFree
The dataframe library worth learning after pandas, when the data stops fitting comfortably in memory.
Visualisation4
- FT Visual VocabularyStart hereFree
A one-page answer to "which chart should this be". Worth printing.
- D3.jsAdvancedFree
The library behind most bespoke data visualisation on the web, with a gallery that doubles as teaching.
- Observable PlotCoreFree
From the makers of D3, for when you want a chart rather than a custom visualisation. Far less code.
- Datawrapper AcademyStart hereFree
Practical guidance on colour, annotation and chart choice from a newsroom charting tool.
Data to practise on4
- Our World in DataStart hereFree
Research-grade datasets and charts on almost every global indicator, downloadable and openly licensed.
- Kaggle DatasetsStart hereFree
Somewhere to practise on data that is messy in the ways real data is messy.
- data.gov.ukStart hereFree
UK public datasets, from transport to spending. Real, current and often genuinely awkward to parse.
- data.gov.inStart hereFree
India’s open government data platform, with a large catalogue across sectors.
About this list
18 resources, checked automatically every week so dead links do not sit here unnoticed. Nothing on this page is sponsored and none of these links pay us — which is the only reason a recommendation on it is worth anything. Every link goes to the original source, and we take nothing with you when you leave.