Learn to use the most powerful tool for working with data.
Even if you've never coded before.
New free course: Using AI with R
Supporting forward looking organizations
Core Courses
New to R?
From "what's R?" to "I love R" in three self-paced courses.
Start here when you're just starting out.
Sign up for the newsletter
R tips and tricks straight to your inbox.
R in 3 Months
R in 3 Months
Looking for even more? R in 3 Months is a cohort-based program to help you finally learn R.
High-Quality Instruction
With R in 3 Months, you’ll get high-quality instruction that will guide you from R newbie to R expert.
Personalized Feedback
You'll work on your own code every week and get in-depth feedback.
Supportive Community
You'll be on this journey alongside a supportive community that will help you learn and keep you accountable to yourself.
Testimonials
Don't Take it From Us
Our learners say it best.
“thanks - helped a lot to get started with R
“Hi! This course is just the simplest way I have found to understand R. Thanks a lot!
“This is a terrific resource for learning R! I cannot believe it is free. The videos are well-made, and the information is extremely helpful. Kudos to the R for the rest of us platform, David, and the rest of the team.
“I really enjoyed this course: * The wording is super clear. * The pace feels just right. * The interface is brilliant to navigate the video through the search box or the script. Thanks for the smooth experience!
“It was really great and helpful, thank you very much!
“Solid intRo to R :)
“This is approachable and accessible. I'd recommend this program to a friend as a great way to learn enough about R to take away the fear of the difficulty of learning anything relating to code.
“This is an excellent introduction to R and Rstudio and the capabilities of R. It was easy to understand and the exercises and tips were very helpful. I learned a lot. Thank you for offering this us to dip our toes into using R.
“Its very useful course for beginner! Thank you so much :)
“As I had never used R before, this course helped me learn the basics of R and the different methodologies for data visualization and coming up with errors.
Topics Courses
Ready to Up Your R Game?
For when you've got the foundations down and you're ready to learn more.
Consulting
Let Us Handle the R
High-quality data visualization, workflow improvements, and custom packages to enable organizations to communicate more effectively and more efficiently.
Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model Reports
Judi’s House/JAG Institute, a nonprofit in Colorado, provides support regarding childhood bereavement. In 2018, they created the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model® (CBEM) to estimate rates of children losing a parent or sibling before adulthood. Annual CBEM reports were produced, but racial and ethnic data breakdowns were lacking until 2021. Partnering with R for the Rest of Us, they generated high-quality, easy-to-understand reports on bereavement disparities by race and ethnicity. These national and state-level reports, created using parameterized reporting and RMarkdown, help advance their vision that no child should be alone in grief.
Immunization Agenda 2030 Reports
The World Health Organization's Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) aims to improve global vaccine access. To better report progress, the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University partnered with R for the Rest of Us in 2023. They produced 72 user-friendly country-level reports in English and French, using parameterized reporting. These reports highlight individual country progress, use less technical language than previous online scorecards, and are in a printable PDF format for review.
Improving R Training for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region
NOAA Fisheries West Coast region (NOAA WCR) aims to maintain healthy fish populations along the west coast, with offices in California, Oregon, and Washington. Recently, they have increased their use of R, arranging internal trainings and seeking additional support in 2024 from R for the Rest of Us. They created a 6-week training program focusing on R fundamentals, advanced R topics, and GitHub integration. By the end, NOAA WCR staff efficiently produced technical memoranda and improved their workflows using R and Quarto.
Blog
Blog
Learn to use the most powerful tool for working with data.
Even if you've never coded before.
Use shadows in ggplot to highlight findings
April 24, 2025
In our consulting work, we make a lot of the data visualization for parameterized reporting . It’s something I spoke about in my 2024 Cascadia R Conf talk, How to Make a Thousand Plots Look Good: Data Viz Tips for Parameterized Reporting . One example I gave in this talk came from our work with the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center and the World Health Organization . In this project, we made reports for the Immunization Agenda 2030 project, which tracks the progress countries...
Create your own custom {ggplot2} theme
April 3, 2025
Creating custom themes in {ggplot2} lets you elevate your data visualizations from standard to standout. Whether you’re aiming for a polished, brand-consistent look for your organization or a unique aesthetic that reflects your personal style, a custom theme function makes it easy to apply your design to all figures with a single line of code. In this tutorial, we’ll cover: the essentials of the powerful ggplot2::theme() function, including how to adjust fonts, colors, sizing, and spacing;...
Hide text labels with small values to make charts made in ggplot easier to read
March 13, 2025
One issue that we often face when making data visualization in reports is text not fitting into graphs. This happened to us when working on reports for the Connecticut Data Collaborative and the Partnership for Strong Communities in Connecticut. The reports we made , which show key demographic and housing indicators for towns and counties across the state, have bar charts that show the housing cost burden for renters and home owners in the state. In addition to the categories severe burden...