September and October sure went fast. We on the Mapping Center team have been very busy working on mapping projects, and have not spent as much time here--but we're finding a balance and will be getting more good blogs done soon (several are in the pipeline).

This post's topic is important because many of the questions we get on Ask a Cartographer are about where to get map data. I think a big reason for this is because most ESRI's software users work in larger organizations and thus, don't get much in the way of a hands-on experience with ESRI, so they often do not know about all of what they get with their ArcGIS license.  ESRI's online presence (blogs, resource centers, and ArcGISOnline) are all important ways to connect the day to day users of ArcGIS software to valuable content. 

Some of that content is map data--and ESRI has worked hard to provide progressively better and better map data, free, to licensed users of our software*.  As of a few years ago, the quality of that data was arguably as good as any data out there--and our data continues to improve. Today, for many of our datasets, I don't know of a better source.

Now there is a new blog, the ArcGIS Data Blog, that you should subscribe to in order to keep up on what's new with all that data--this will give you an advantage by being able to produce better maps because you've got better content to use.

* Not all that data may be redistributed or used in for profit commercial uses--so check the help and metadata: here is a help topic that gives an overview of the data and it contains links and information about what your license permits.