diff --git a/data/scripts/get_coco.sh b/data/scripts/get_coco.sh
index 157a0b04cf86..b0df905c8525 100755
--- a/data/scripts/get_coco.sh
+++ b/data/scripts/get_coco.sh
@@ -20,5 +20,7 @@ f1='train2017.zip' # 19G, 118k images
 f2='val2017.zip'   # 1G, 5k images
 f3='test2017.zip'  # 7G, 41k images (optional)
 for f in $f1 $f2; do
-  echo 'Downloading' $url$f ' ...' && curl -L $url$f -o $f && unzip -q $f -d $d && rm $f # download, unzip, remove
+  echo 'Downloading' $url$f '...' && curl -L $url$f -o $f # download, (unzip, remove in background)
+  unzip -q $f -d $d && rm $f &
 done
+wait # finish background tasks
diff --git a/data/scripts/get_voc.sh b/data/scripts/get_voc.sh
index 6bdaa9bcc071..06414b085095 100644
--- a/data/scripts/get_voc.sh
+++ b/data/scripts/get_voc.sh
@@ -17,9 +17,11 @@ url=https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/releases/download/v1.0/
 f1=VOCtrainval_06-Nov-2007.zip # 446MB, 5012 images
 f2=VOCtest_06-Nov-2007.zip     # 438MB, 4953 images
 f3=VOCtrainval_11-May-2012.zip # 1.95GB, 17126 images
-for f in $f1 $f2 $f3; do
-  echo 'Downloading' $url$f ' ...' && curl -L $url$f -o $f && unzip -q $f -d $d && rm $f # download, unzip, remove
+for f in $f3 $f2 $f1; do
+  echo 'Downloading' $url$f '...' && curl -L $url$f -o $f # download, (unzip, remove in background)
+  unzip -q $f -d $d && rm $f &
 done
+wait # finish background tasks
 
 end=$(date +%s)
 runtime=$((end - start))