The China Dimensions Data Collection is just one of several geospatial data resources provided by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). SEDAC is a program of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, and works in conjunction with NASA to "develop and operate applications that support the integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data and to serve as an Information Gateway between the Earth and social sciences."

China Dimensions contains several different socioeconomic datasets. These include: administrative boundaries (including Provincial and County level boundaries), "fundamental" maps, (including layers for roads, railroads, drainage systems, contours, populated places, and urbanized areas), population and public health (including county level census data, rural agricultural statistics, and a hospitals dataset), economics (including an "Economic Yearbook" contains many economic attributes such as wage, employment, finance, livelihood, and many others) and public policy documentation, describing priority programmes covering the areas of legislation, policies, education, agriculture, environment, energy, etc.

Users are required to login to the SEDAC website in order to download the data.