<p>I found the following two sources useful to analyze my betweenness centrality algorithms. These are more biased towards being "social". You will find more data by searching "protein interaction networks" on google.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://snap.stanford.edu/data/">SNAP at Stanford</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/mgd/gdb.html">Graph Datasets</a> at Washington State University</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-30T03:34:00.523Z
2010-11-30T03:34:00.523Z
Shiva Kintali
<p>Information related to test problems for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) can be found here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.tsp.gatech.edu/data/index.html">http://www.tsp.gatech.edu/data/index.html</a></p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-30T04:24:58.453Z
2010-11-30T04:24:58.453Z
Joseph Malkevitch
<p>The comments have some good data sets. There's also some <a href="http://odysseas.calit2.uci.edu/doku.php/public%3aonline_social_networks#facebook_social_graph">Facebook data here</a>.</p>

<p><a href="http://snap.stanford.edu/data/">SNAP</a> has some interesting data</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-23T23:28:54.593Z
2011-02-23T23:38:17.717Z
2011-02-23T23:38:17.717Z
mhadley
<p>There are some real benchmark instances for Frequency Assignment problem on:
<a href="http://fap.zib.de/problems/" rel="nofollow">http://fap.zib.de/problems/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T19:55:43.533Z
Why "real" in quotes?
Yaroslav Bulatov
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T20:28:40.857Z
They were just for emphasize that word, but you are right I removed them.
Arman
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-30T16:44:21.237Z
2010-12-01T20:26:37.347Z
2010-12-01T20:26:37.347Z
Arman
<p>You might try checking this page on data sets from the "International network for social network analysis":</p>

<p><a href="http://www.insna.org/software/data.html">http://www.insna.org/software/data.html</a></p>

<p>If you have access to either "Networks, Crowds, and Markets" (Easley and Kleinberg, 2010) or "Social and Economic Networks" (Jackson, 2008), they're both full of references to datasets in the literature.</p>

<p>Edit: You can find a pre-publication draft of Networks, Crowds, and Markets at:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/">http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/</a></p>

<p>Chapter 2 contains a section called "Network Datasets" that might give you some ideas.</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-24T04:33:39.220Z
2011-02-24T04:33:39.220Z
Dan
<ul>
<li><a href="http://sndlib.zib.de/home.action" rel="nofollow">SNDlib</a> has a collection of instances for survivable network design.</li>
<li>A collection of large road networks is available on the page of the <a href="http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~challenge9/download.shtml" rel="nofollow">9th DIMACS implementation challenge</a>.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-30T09:43:15.680Z
2010-11-30T09:43:15.680Z
Marcus Ritt
<p>The <a href="http://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/index.html">UCI Network Data Repository</a> has a collection of social networks, with additional attributes (not just vertices and edges). They also have a set of <a href="http://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/resources.php">links to similar collections elsewhere</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-30T04:02:02.123Z
2010-11-30T04:02:02.123Z
David Eppstein
<p>Where can I find graphs relevant to real-life problems?</p>

<p>Two repositories I know of are:</p>

<ul>
<li>University of Florida's <a href="http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/matrices/">Sparse Matrix Collection</a></li>
<li>Bodlaender's <a href="http://people.cs.uu.nl/hansb/treewidthlib/index.php">TreewidthLib</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T01:22:19.157Z
A similar question: [Data for testing graph algorithms](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/739/873).
Sadeq Dousti
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T05:16:47.493Z
similar, I think synthetically generated graphs should go there
Yaroslav Bulatov
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T20:18:24.090Z
Nitpick: It should be Bodlaender.
gphilip
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-23T21:17:11.027Z
There are some large graphs from real-life, in DIMACS Benchmarks for Shortest Path Problem: http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~challenge9/download.shtml#benchmark
Arman
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-23T22:24:53.483Z
You might find the answers to this question useful: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/3409/graphs-from-real-life-problems
Aaron Sterling
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-24T06:27:19.040Z
@Fixee, it seems to me that this is an exact duplicate of the question linked by Aaron Sterling. (if you want smaller graphs than those mentioned in that question then use their subgraphs of suitable size.) I vote (virtually) to close as exact duplicate.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T01:34:16.403Z
@Kaveh: My question asks for a graph derived from a source familiar to students (so that the topic might pull them in).  The graphs referenced by Aaron's link are the usual kinds of abstract graphs that I was trying to avoid.
Fixee
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T02:42:59.043Z
@Fixee, the title of his question is "graphs from real-life problems", the question is not looking for abstract examples, so it seems to me that the questions are the same and the answers should be in one place not separated between different questions.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T03:26:38.820Z
@Kaveh: I deliberately chose not to put "Large graphs that resonate with the 20-something crowd" in the title because it seems a bit ungainly.  Maybe I should have asked more specifically for "graphs based on social media" but I didn't want to restrict to that domain. In any event, I got an excellent answer so I'm quite happy.  I'll let the mods decide if they want to close/merge/kill the question from here.  Cheers.
Fixee
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T03:57:19.593Z
@Fixee, answers to the question you have asked is also answer to the question link above and the question are close enough, the more general question would include the answers to your intended unasked question (i.e. resonating with students), so I don't see any reason to have answers get divided between two question. Merging answer of this question with the other question and closing this question will not kill it, your question will still be here (and can be upvoted), but if a user wants to add a new answer, they have to post it under the other question which will be linked from your question
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T04:00:33.100Z
it is better to have the answers in one place to avoid repetition. (See [this post](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/) for more information about merging.)
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2011-02-25T04:11:45.313Z
Moderator notice: Note: the comment above are moved from this question as a result of merging: [Large real-world graphs for teaching use?](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/5103/large-real-world-graphs-for-teaching-use)
Kaveh
<graph-theory><big-list><co.combinatorics><data-sets>
graphs from real-life problems
Yaroslav Bulatov
# graphs from real-life problems

(Asked by: username_0 on 2010-11-30)

Where can I find graphs relevant to real-life problems?

Two repositories I know of are:

* University of Florida's [Sparse Matrix Collection](http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/matrices/)
* Bodlaender's [TreewidthLib](http://people.cs.uu.nl/hansb/treewidthlib/index.php)

**Tags:** graph-theory, big-list, co.combinatorics, data-sets
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: A similar question: [Data for testing graph algorithms](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/739/873).  
> **username_0**: similar, I think synthetically generated graphs should go there  
> **username_2**: Nitpick: It should be Bodlaender.  
> **username_3**: There are some large graphs from real-life, in DIMACS Benchmarks for Shortest Path Problem: http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~challenge9/download.shtml#benchmark  
> **username_4**: You might find the answers to this question useful: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/3409/graphs-from-real-life-problems  
> **username_5**: @Fixee, it seems to me that this is an exact duplicate of the question linked by Aaron Sterling. (if you want smaller graphs than those mentioned in that question then use their subgraphs of suitable size.) I vote (virtually) to close as exact duplicate.  
> **username_6**: @Kaveh: My question asks for a graph derived from a source familiar to students (so that the topic might pull them in).  The graphs referenced by Aaron's link are the usual kinds of abstract graphs that I was trying to avoid.  
> **username_5**: @Fixee, the title of his question is "graphs from real-life problems", the question is not looking for abstract examples, so it seems to me that the questions are the same and the answers should be in one place not separated between different questions.  
> **username_6**: @Kaveh: I deliberately chose not to put "Large graphs that resonate with the 20-something crowd" in the title because it seems a bit ungainly.  Maybe I should have asked more specifically for "graphs based on social media" but I didn't want to restrict to that domain. In any event, I got an excellent answer so I'm quite happy.  I'll let the mods decide if they want to close/merge/kill the question from here.  Cheers.  
> **username_5**: @Fixee, answers to the question you have asked is also answer to the question link above and the question are close enough, the more general question would include the answers to your intended unasked question (i.e. resonating with students), so I don't see any reason to have answers get divided between two question. Merging answer of this question with the other question and closing this question will not kill it, your question will still be here (and can be upvoted), but if a user wants to add a new answer, they have to post it under the other question which will be linked from your question  
> **username_5**: it is better to have the answers in one place to avoid repetition. (See [this post](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/) for more information about merging.)  
> **username_5**: Moderator notice: Note: the comment above are moved from this question as a result of merging: [Large real-world graphs for teaching use?](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/5103/large-real-world-graphs-for-teaching-use)  

---

## 7 answers

### Answer by username_12 on 2010-11-30. Score: 13 | Accepted answer

The [UCI Network Data Repository](http://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/index.html) has a collection of social networks, with additional attributes (not just vertices and edges). They also have a set of [links to similar collections elsewhere](http://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/resources.php).


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2010-11-30. Score: 8

I found the following two sources useful to analyze my betweenness centrality algorithms. These are more biased towards being "social". You will find more data by searching "protein interaction networks" on google.

* [SNAP at Stanford](http://snap.stanford.edu/data/)
* [Graph Datasets](http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/mgd/gdb.html) at Washington State University


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2010-11-30. Score: 5

Information related to test problems for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) can be found here:

<http://www.tsp.gatech.edu/data/index.html>


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2011-02-23. Score: 5

The comments have some good data sets. There's also some [Facebook data here](http://odysseas.calit2.uci.edu/doku.php/public%3aonline_social_networks#facebook_social_graph).

[SNAP](http://snap.stanford.edu/data/) has some interesting data


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2010-11-30. Score: 5

There are some real benchmark instances for Frequency Assignment problem on:
<http://fap.zib.de/problems/>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Why "real" in quotes?  
> **username_3**: They were just for emphasize that word, but you are right I removed them.  

---

### Answer by username_10 on 2011-02-24. Score: 5

You might try checking this page on data sets from the "International network for social network analysis":

<http://www.insna.org/software/data.html>

If you have access to either "Networks, Crowds, and Markets" (Easley and Kleinberg, 2010) or "Social and Economic Networks" (Jackson, 2008), they're both full of references to datasets in the literature.

Edit: You can find a pre-publication draft of Networks, Crowds, and Markets at:

<http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/>

Chapter 2 contains a section called "Network Datasets" that might give you some ideas.


---

### Answer by username_11 on 2010-11-30. Score: 2

* [SNDlib](http://sndlib.zib.de/home.action) has a collection of instances for survivable network design.
* A collection of large road networks is available on the page of the [9th DIMACS implementation challenge](http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~challenge9/download.shtml).


---

